5:50pm... We have had a
wonderful day. Taylor ate his lunch that consisted of ravioli and turnip greens.
No, he didn't eat the turnip greens. He didn't even let them stay on the tray.
We had to throw those away before we could eat anything. Dinner was pizza and
rolls. He ate the rolls, but the pizza was to brown for his royalties taste.
Mrs. Kimberly, the child life assistant, came by and brought him some play dough
and a magna doodle. They made a duck together. Taylor was very impressed with
the glue stick. We have glued everything in sight. He has been so funny today.
He took a great 3 hour nap with a bed full of stuff. He woke me up by strumming
his markers across the bars of the crib. It was like he was saying "let me out
of jail. " He also wanted to make hearts today while we were doing art. We made
a big blue heart that he has had to listen to with the stethoscope.

Dr. Sande came in and looked
him over. She ordered another respiratory panel test which is where they swab
the back of the nose. He hated it. She said he looked amazing, no mouth sores,
ear is clearing up and he is eating somewhat. He does not look like someone who
just had 4 days of lethal chemotherapy. Praise God that he is doing so well and
pray it continues. He has been weaned off of the dopamine. It will not be a
shock if he has to go back on it while he sleeps, but he has done fine without
it this afternoon.

Taylor's counts:

Platelets: 70,000

PCV: 30.9

HGB: 10.7

RBC: 3.59

WBC: 2.34

Taylor had a pretty good night. He
did the routine 12:45 vomit and then went back to sleep. He didn't vomit much
but it got on his shirt sleeve and he kept rubbing everything, so by the time it
was over he had clean everything. He went back to sleep pretty quick as did I
and we got up at 7am only to get clean everything again due to a leaky diaper.
His breakfast came and he ate the half piece of toast on the tray and we ordered
2 biscuits. He ate one of them and lost interest. He would have eaten them, but
he was interrupted to change a diaper and weigh. I hate that up here they do it
on their schedule sleeping or eating doesn't matter. I know things are different
up here and things have to get done, but you would think he could at least
finish eating. They left his dopamine at .6 all night. He did fine throughout
the night at that number. It has now been dropped to .5 and it will go down
throughout the day. If it needs to go up when he sleeps it will.

Remember Nathan and his family. There
was no change overnight. Remember Austin as he schedules surgery again, pray
that he stays fever free and has his surgery. Pray for Morgan and her family as
they fly to New York today to learn more about the antibody treatment. It is the
same thing Taylor will get either here or New York. Please continue to pray for
Taylor and that this is successful and he never has to face this disease again.
He has a very green, runny nose today. Pray it clears up before counts drop and
it doesn't turn into anything serious. The ear is looking better, but not healed
continue to pray for that as well.

March 30,
2003 Day -3

10:15pm... Mommy arrived
back at the hospital around 5pm and I found Taylor playing cars in a tent made
over the bed. He was glad to see me, but only because I had Wal-Mart bags. He
thinks anything from there is going to be for him. Does that make him spoiled?
His chemo finished up around 2:00 this afternoon. He is only on fluids and
Dopamine now. He is being weaned off the Dopamine at .2mls per hour. He has been
asleep since 8:30 and is staying in an okay range. It dipped to 87/17 and the
doctor came in and took it again and it was fine. He didn't up the Dopamine yet.
Hopefully he wont have to and he will be off that by about 1am. We did his mouth
care. Even though he hates every minute of it he holds his mouth open for us. He
is getting the hang of the spitting, now we just need him to get it in the
bucket or chuck. I was wearing most of it after it was all over. We are on our
rest days now. We are just on the countdown for day 0, transplant day.

Please remember Taylor in your
prayers. We need prayers that this is the last chemo he will ever endure and his
transplant is successful and uncomplicated. Please remember Nathan Flemming in
your prayers tonight. He is still in the hospital on a ventilator. He is not
doing well. Check out his sight and offer his family encouragement.
www.caringbridge.com/tx/nathan

Taylor's counts:

Platelets: 98

PCV: 32.7

HGB: 11.3

RBC: 3.77

WBC: 4.11

We battled low blood pressure
throughout the night. Taylor woke up this morning and is in somewhat of a good
mood. He let me do his mouthwash, despite a little resistance. He was so big
about it, and it made him throw up a little bit. Right after we finished mouth
care, they brought in breakfast. He actually started to eat a little bit! He ate
all of his biscuit, and about half of a yogurt cup. I went ahead and had two
more biscuits ordered since he was in the mood. He just finished (8:05AM) the
insides of those two. Of course, he will not eat the top and bottom, but at
least he is eating. I promised him some peet peet for lunch because he did so
well with his mouth care. Mommy, if you are reading this, he also needs some
more sweet tea. His last blood pressure reading was at 114/44, so the low blood
pressure is just a problem related with deep sleep and the relaxation of his
blood vessels while he is sleeping. This is a common side effect of the
etoposide. He is on the last little bit of the chemotherapy and should be off by
10:00AM. He is currently leaned back in the bed, looking out the window at
Cooper Green, our lovely view!

March 29,
2003 Day -4

Taylor hasn't gotten sick
anymore today. He took a really good nap today. His counts are posted below. His
blood pressure is also staying in a comfortable range for me. I will be glad
when this chemotherapy has ended, and Taylor gets a few days of rest. He really
needs it. Jeanna and Pa Pa stopped by today to visit with

Taylor. Taylor enjoyed the
visit. Soon, he will be restricted to visitors, which will be very hard for him.
He also got some new books today that he really enjoys playing with, and some
room decorations.

Today, daddy and mommy went to
the Ridge Park Red Cross to donate platelets. Daddy will be a direct donor for
Taylor, but mommy is CMV positive, so she can not donate directly to Taylor, but
someone out there still needs platelets. Unfortunately, mommy's iron was a
little low, so she was unable to donate today. I was able to give platelets, and
it was quite an experience. The room is very very cold. It only took about 2
hours total, and about 30 minutes of that was filling out the usual paperwork.
Taylor has been sick three times already this morning, and it is not even noon
yet. They have given him some more anti nausea medicine to hopefully keep him
from getting sick. He is on the last day of his conditioning chemotherapy,
receiving carboplatin
and etoposide today,
that should be through around 9am in the morning. Taylor is not eating much at
all and is in a little bad mood right now, but it is understandable considering
what he has been through.

Taylor's Counts:

Platelets: 116

PCV: 32.8

HGB: 11.3

RBC: 3.78

WBC: 4.93

March 28,
2003 Day -5

Taylor was in a fairly good
and played for a little bit. He is only getting sick when the anti-nausea
medicine starts to wear off. We would like to thank Gram for helping Kim this
week during the day. It gave Kim a much needed break during the day, and help
with throw up when the need was there. G-mom got to the hospital around 3pm and
stayed the night. He slept pretty good during the night, and did not get sick
one time. The have finally regulated his blood pressure somewhat, but the
bottom number still dips down into the 20's while he is sleeping.

March 27,
2003 Day -6

What a night!! We had a
running joke all day yesterday that Taylor was saving all the vomiting for late
in the night when I was alone. Well, he did. At 1:00 in the morning he decided
to it was time. They gave him some Zofran and that was it. Thank goodness. I
couldn't sleep for fear he would do it and me sleep through it, so I stayed up
until 3:00. Finally I was convinced he was fine. He slept until about 8:15. He
wanted no part of breakfast today. In fact he ate very little all day. He has
played well today. He feels okay I guess. He didn't do as well with the mouth
care today. I have forced him because we hear autogolous transplants are worse
on the mouth. He threw up a little while we did mouth care. I don't know if it
makes him sick or if he is gagging due to the toothette in his mouth. We spent
some time learning the things he can and can not eat now. For example, he can't
have anything from a community serving line, or fountain drink machines. All ice
and tea have to be made with distilled, reverse osmosis treated bottled water.
No raw fruit or veggies and the list goes on. He threw up in his food tray at
dinner. I guess that is proof enough that hospital food is yuck:) His blood
pressure continues to be a problem when he is asleep. We had to wake him from
his nap to see if it would come back up. I don't know what that means for
tonight, I mean he has to sleep. They have one other med to try and if that
doesn't work he will go to PICU. This is a know effect of the etoposide and it
is expected to fix itself when chemo is over. His right ear also has puss. We
had to start drops again. We still have all day Friday and Saturday for chemo
and then we rest three days. We should start to see counts drop by the
middle of next week.

Pray that all this suffering
is going to be worth it in the end with a successful transplant and to never
relapse. Please pray that the ear infection clears up and does not pose a threat
to his transplant. Pray that the blood pressure stabilizes after chemo and
is not an ongoing problem. Please remember Morgan as she prepares to go to New
York for anti body treatments. Pray for Austin and that his fever breaks and he
can have surgery soon. Pray that Alexis remains at home doing well. Please pray
for Nathan as he continue to struggle. We met some new friends tonight that need
our prayers as well. Brachston,3, has ALL and Alexis was born with heart
problems and had surgery. She is 9 weeks old and she will need our prayers as
she heals.

March 26,
2003 Day -7

Chemo was started around 9:10
this morning. The Melphalan was finished by 10:10. We had already had a long
morning. We have a lot of getting used to up here. The nurse came in and changed
his diaper every 2 hours. She talked to him. I know she was just comforting him,
but it was a little annoying to keep getting woke up. I guess he got tired of it
to because by 4:45 he had no desire to go back to sleep. He finally did, but
only until about 6:00. He got up and was fairly chipper to have had such a rough
night. I on the other hand could have slept for much longer. He has eaten like a
pig and pizza was not on the menu. He ate eggs, sausage, pop

tarts, granola
bars, vanilla wafers, and drank plenty of tea. He is now hooked to so much
stuff. Bells are dining and whistling all the time. If his finger isn't straight
his O2 machine goes crazy. He has probes all over his chest monitoring pulse,
heart rate, respirations and when he gets wild they bing. The drugs often cause
low blood pressure and we are seeing those effects. He did fine awake, but it
dropped off while he slept. It was a long nap time dealing with it, but we
thought it was over when he woke up. Wrong, as soon as he went to sleep tonight
it all came back. He is now on dopamine to keep it where it needs to be. It will
be adjusted as needed when he is awake and asleep. Other than that he has done
wonderful. No vomiting so far!!! I hope it continues that way. He has to have a
bath every night and change the bandages over his central line every night. I
think our most challenging times are mouth care times. Every 4 hours we do mouth
care. He is great about letting me do it. I guess it doesn't taste to bad. The
idea is to swish and spit 3 different medicines. Well, Taylor swallows the
medicine then just spits to spit. I have swished and spit a gallon of water
trying to show him, but it didn't work. I finally quit trying and we are just
doing it with toothetes. He is doing great. He still spits for the fun of it,
but as long as he keeps doing it, I don't care if he spits.

He has flirted like crazy and
already learning names of our new nurses. Look out 4-tower, we have new women
invading your territory!! He was funny last night when we were getting ready for
bed. Since he is in a crib I get to sleep on the hospital bed rather than the
fold out chair. He was so upset that I wasn't in the chair. I let him pitch that
fit because I was not choosing the chair over the bed. You have to choose your
battles you know:)

Please remember Austin
(surgery postponed again), Nathan (still critically stable) and everyone else
dealing with cancer both young and old. Remember The troops and their families
as the war continues. Please pray that Taylor continues to tolerate this chemo
and continues eating this well. Pray this is the last chemo he ever receives.
Pray that the transplant is successful and we never face relapse and we put this
trying time behind us. I know all of these things are possible through God and
prayers.

Don't forget to sign the guest
book. Taylor and I really enjoy reading them. Since we have a computer in the
room he thinks he has to be on it all the time. Father like son!!

March 25,
2003

Today starts the beginning of
a long battle. Taylor was admitted to the stem cell floor at Children's
Hospital. Taylor will be in room 659, and will be there anywhere from 1 month to
3 months. It all depends on how his transplant goes, how his body's immune
system rebounds, and other things that will go into how soon, or long it will
take before we can return home. Another hard part for us, is the fact that only
one parent can spend the night in the room. It is very hard to be apart from
each other at a time like this. The house feels so lonely tonight as I type
these words you see before you. I pray for a safe and quick recovery so that we
can all be reunited together again. I fear the worse, but know that with God's
will, Taylor will be just fine. Taylor's kidney test that was run yesterday
turned out great, and this means Taylor will be receiving the full amount of
chemotherapy. The schedule is like this: tomorrow he starts chemotherapy, which
will run through Saturday night. It will be a continuous, extremely high dose of
melphalan,
etoposide, and
carboplatin. The
protocol can be viewed here.
He will then rest Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday April 2, they
will infuse Taylor's frozen stem cells back into his body, like a blood
transfusion. The idea is, the chemotherapy, because of the high amounts used,
will kill everything in his body. His body will have no means of growing new
bone marrow (bone marrow in return creates white blood cells, red blood cells
and platelets, and without these, he would die). On April 2, they will give him
back his clean stem cells to "rescue" his body from the lack of bone marrow. His
stem cells will filter back into his body, finding their way into his bone
cavity, where they will take root, and engraft, where after about 10 days, they
will start producing new white and red blood cells and platelets. During the
time after transplant, Taylor's immune system will be wiped out, and his body
will not be able to fight infection. His body will be open to infection, which
would be deadly. He will be isolated, until such time that his body has started
creating new cells that will be able to fight off infection. The overall goal of
this procedure is to kill off any remaining "hidden" cancer cells that may be in
his body hiding. Taylor's cancer often lays dormant for years, with these hidden
cells just sitting in wait, and then awaking for some unknown reason, and then
multiplying spreading the cancer back throughout his body. The goal is to wipe
out all of these cancer cells so that there is nothing there to create a relapse
of cancer. Please pray that this is a safe procedure and that Taylor's cancer
cells will be killed off 100%. I also changed the picture page for all of the
Auburn Pictures. It will make it a little easier to view all of them.

March 24,
2003

Today we went to UAB for the
blood/kidney function test. Of course nothing goes as planned. We got there at
8:00 and they finally called him back at 8:50. The plan was to put in an IV for
the dye and then draw blood from his central line. I had him ready with Emla on
both hands. What does she do??? put the dye in his line and tell me they will
draw blood from his arm. We questioned it and her answer was if the IV was not
straight in the vein it would lose some dye and we couldn't have that happen.
So, he had his blood taken out of his arm at 9:50 and 11:50. The first hour we
spent at the cafeteria and he ate 3 biscuits. We went in the lab and did the
first draw. He went crazy! It took 2 of us to hold him down and he was thrashing
all over. It took a long time to draw it because the needle was so small. He was
now very tired. WE pushed 2 chairs together and he slept until I woke him up for
the second draw. This one was much smoother. I sat him in my lap and we counted
and played I spy while she did it. He never knew she stuck him. He did look at
her once and got upset, but we just distracted him and he was fine. It was much
shorter than we expected. We were gone by 12:15 and headed for pizza. Of course
there was no nap since he slept in the waiting room. He played outside again. He
was filthy, but he had a blast. I am so glad.

We go in tomorrow at noon. We will
not start chemo until Wednesday. I am so afraid. I am not afraid of this
procedure, but the complications that could arise. Please keep us all in your
prayers. Pray this is complication free and successful for Taylor. Pray this is
the last chemo his little body will ever have again. We want this monster gone
for good!!! Pray for Austin, who should have surgery today. Pray for Nathan who
is still in critically stable condition. Pray all the doctors and doctors and
nurses have the wisdom to care for all our children. Pray for all the troops and
the families they left behind.

March 23,
2003

Wow, what a day. Taylor had an
absolute blast. He woke up very early, but he went to bed early last night. We
ate some of our Easter eggs for breakfast. How many of you are going to use
nursing tape to make designs on your eggs? I can certainly see that was a first
for me, but it made great stripes. I put Taylor on my bed to watch Elmo while I
got ready. When I got out we discovered he had a very loose diaper and it leaked
out all over our comforter. So, I had to clean that up and it is ready to be
sent to the cleaners. He got dressed and ready to open his Easter Basket. He was
only interested in the tootsie rolls. Gram arrived with all the pizza. He ate
the cheese off of 7 pieces before everyone else even got here. We all ate and
headed outside to hunt eggs. He loved it. He found a lot all by himself
including the grand prize egg worth $20. Easter is a blast at our house. We hid
166 eggs. Each color was worth a different prize. WE come in and count them and
trade them in for the goods. Taylor won 5 cars and over $40 plus a ton of candy.
He put his eggs in the hood of his jacket to go swap them for the candy. He did
great until he had to give up the blue eggs. He also got ticked when he won a
Hershey bar and wanted a resse cup. It was so beautiful outside and we all took
full advantage of it. We sat outside while the boys rode the gator and played
golf. Taylor had the time of his life and I am so glad. He will have quite a
while that he is in isolation. He has been back inside for about 10 minutes. He
was trying to eat a tootsie roll but he couldn't stay awake. He spit it out and
was asleep before I could even throw it away. I will probably pay for this late
nap later, but it is okay.

Please continue to pray for
all our friends dealing with cancer. Austin will be having surgery tomorrow
morning. Please pray he come through it fine and this help him blow that
popsicle stand, again. Please pray for a internet friend of mine. He is a 17
year old boy named Nathan. He is really struggling right now and could use your
prayers.
www.caringbridge.com/tx/nathan Please pray that we have no more delays and
Taylor has his transplant as scheduled. Pray that it is complication free and we
never have to fight this monster again. Pray for all the brave men and women who
are fighting for us and there families who are missing them.

March 22,
2003

Today was spent cleaning and
packing. We also got ready for Easter. Yes, Easter. We will be having a basket
tomorrow as well as Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Taylor will be in the
hospital on Easter Sunday so we are celebrating now. Our neighbors will probably
think we are crazy, but that's okay. Our Easter dinner this year will be peet
peet. I am sure all of the boys will be okay with that. Gram came by today and
hid over 70 plastic eggs all over the yard and we will hunt for prizes tomorrow.
We also dyed eggs. Taylor has never done that before and he really liked it. He
would have made all blue if we had let him. Jim made an orange and blue egg and
he screamed go, go, go!

Taylor still has a nasty
cough. He is taking Sudafed and hopefully that will clear it up in time for
Tuesday. After cleaning out his ear yesterday the doctors found that he did have
fungus in the ear rather than a virus. They think it is from all the
antibiotics and drops we have been giving so they stopped all that. They put him
on lotromin drops. Yep, it is the athletes foot medicine. It obviously burns the
ear because he freaks out for a good 20 minutes after we put them in. I called
the ENT today and he stopped them.

He is now playing, but he
seems mopey and he has had 2 naps. I hope he is making up from yesterday and not
getting sick or low counts. Tomorrow will be the last day we have at home for a
while. He will spend Monday at UAB and be admitted to the stem cell unit
Tuesday. We have packed lots of toys, movies, books etc for us to do. Hopefully
it wont be to boring looking at those 4 walls for at least a month.

Please pray that Taylor
doesn't have to delay transplant any further and that the delay will not hurt
his remission. Please pray that he will have a complication free transplant and
we leave in a short amount of time. Please pray that he never has to fight this
disease again. Also remember Alexis, Austin, Morgan and all our other friends
fighting cancer. Remember the men and women fighting for our country as well as
there families.

March 21,
2003

We arrived in one day surgery
at 7:00 for our 8am surgery that started at 9:00. That's just par for the course
around Children's. Taylor didn't mind that wait because there were several
cars to ride on. I had to carry him to the hall way where the OR doors are and
then the nurse took him from there. He cried, but I just walked around the
corner. Literally the minute I was out of site he stopped crying. He has come so
far since October. It is so amazing and sad at the same time. No child deserves
to have all this be a normal part of life. He was gone about an hour and I went
and got him so tea while he was gone. They brought him back on a stretcher. He
looked so tiny laying there all curled up with Night Night and frog. He looked
up and said "Mama, car." He immediately jumped in a car and took off down the
hall. All this after they told me the medicine would make him very sleepy for
several hours. We didn't have to wait the full hour after surgery to go since he
was all over the place. We left and went to Blue Cross to visit Gram and
all her friends. Taylor was a show boat and ate all there tootsie rolls and ressie cups. We then went to get...... you guessed it, peet peet. He ate the
cheese off 2 8" pizzas. We went by Salon Magnolia and got the goodies the girls
got for him. Thank you all!!! He is having a blast with it all. Taylor finally
fell asleep at about 3:00. He slept all the way home and for about 30 minutes
once home. So, all that sleepy medicine and we got about an hour nap. Go
figure!! We had a birthday dinner for me, Dugan, and Bob tonight. We ate pizza
and cake. We had a good time and Taylor was a show off as usual. Well, I better
go. Ya'll know me, I have to get the house clean before I can go into the
hospital. I can't help myself:)

Praise God!! Morgan's CMV
counts are coming down!!
www.caringbridge.com/nc/morganbarnes Also, remember Austin who is still in
the hospital, Alexis who has gone home and all the others dealing with this
monster, childhood cancer. Remember our troops and their families.

March 20,
2003

Today consisted of a pretty
pointless trip to the hospital. We arrived at about 12:30 and went to the ENT
clinic to recheck his ear. We had no appointment so we had to wait on someone to
come. They had to page the doctor because he was at UAB. After about a 45 minute
wait, we went back. He looked at his ear and started to suction it out. He got a
phone call from the doctor who saw him Monday and they discussed that it looked
better, but was still infected. His culture did not grow anything therefore, he
has fungus in the ear. Probably a yeast infection. Dr. Hill, the doc who put in
the original tubes called as well. He said put a new one in. I was very glad,
but a little ill too since we begged for one Monday. Taylor was excited because
that meant he didn't have to suction it anymore. By now it was 2:00 and we
should be at the stem cell transplant unit meeting with the doctors. However, I
was being sent downstairs to start an hour and a half registration process for
tomorrows tube placement. I finally had to leave and go upstairs. We filled out
paper work and got vital signs. He was back at 25.2 pounds today up from 23 on
Monday. We believe he was dehydrated from the lack of sweet tea in Florida. We
also found out some news that was a little discouraging, but not to bad yet. His
urine levels that were tested Monday and Tuesday were low meaning his kidneys
are not getting stuff out of the blood stream fast enough. This is a side effect
of chemo drugs. The doctors feel that because he was so dehydrated he may have
just not had enough urine to work with. We will go to UAB Monday and have a
radio active dye
injected into his blood and then have his blood tested every few hours. This
will show exactly how fast his kidneys are ridding the blood of the dye. They
say this is the gold standard in kidney function testing. If this test also
shows a low level he will get lower doses of chemo pre-transplant. This will not
change the outcome of it all just lower the risk of further kidney toxicity. We
wont get too nervous until after this test result is back. Taylor also has a bit
of a cough and runny nose. They did a nose swab today and should know if it is
growing anything by tomorrow. Because of these two factors we will be admitted
to the ward on Tuesday rather than Monday. Our schedule will be pushed back one
day for everything. We will get our transplant on 4/2. This is of course if the
cold and ear don't hinder us any further.

Please pray that these delays
don't hinder us to much and that the delay doesn't give his body time to grow
new cancer cells. We need to stay in remission!!! Please pray for all the other
children facing this and other cancers. Also, remember to pray for our troops
and their families.

March 19,
2003

Today, we ventured to Auburn,
and Taylor had a blast! First we went to my old work and walked around looking
at all the fish in the tanks. Taylor enjoyed looking at the huge catfish. It was
good to see all of my old co-workers, including Curtis. We then headed for the
athletic complex and Taylor's tour of the football field and complex. First let
me send a huge thank you to Sue, Caroline, Andy, Will, and Gloria for setting
this up and taking Taylor around, he had the time of his life! I would also like
to thank all of the coaches and players we met, in particular Coach Tuberville,
Chette Williams, and the players that took the time to talk with Taylor before
practice, you truly made his day! The pictures are posted above. Taylor got to
tour the football stadium first, and despite the huge stadium and green grass,
he favorite part of the tour was the men working on the west end zone, putting
up a new wall. They had a bull dozer and back hoe, and were digging up the old
wall. He enjoyed watching them dig and play in the dirt. He also enjoyed racing
with ca-ca, Andy and Will across the stadium. Taylor then got to go see the
press room, where Coach Tuberville addresses the media after games. He then got
to see the huge locker room where the players dress and meet for halftime. He
loved the huge AU in the middle of the locker room. We then got to tour the side
rooms under the stadium where Tiger Walk ends, and some other rooms that had
some neat stuff in them. After sitting on a tractor, we headed back to the
athletic complex, in our golf cart, which he loved. He also enjoyed honking the
horn at all the pretty girls, then waving at them. He loves to flirt. On the
tour of the complex, Taylor got to see the weight room, the indoor practice
facility and the practice fields. He loved the tackling dummies in the indoor
practice facility, and kept asking to set them back up so he could run and
tackle them. Meeting the players was a little intimidating for Taylor. They were
of course, much larger than Taylor, but they also had their shoulder pads on,
and it scared him a little. He did let Coach Tuberville and Chette Williams hold
him. I really appreciate Coach Tuberville taking time out of his day to talk
with us and Taylor. I would also like to thank Chette Williams for our prayer.
What a great man and a true ambassador to Auburn and a man of God. Taylor then
got to watch a little of the practice. He enjoyed watching the running backs
catch punts while other teammates tried to make them drop the punt. He also
liked watching the quarterbacks passing the ball. It was a special trip for
Taylor and he really had a good time. He was very tired from his long day and
was ready to go home, so we did.

March 18,
2003

Happy Birthday to Kim today!!!
The hospital trip is over, and we finally made it home!!! Getting the catheter
put in was stressful, but they finally were able to get it in yesterday. Taylor
was grumpy because he had to stay in that be for 24 straight hours, plus he did
not take a nap today, so he is out right now (8:16pm). We plan to go tomorrow to
Auburn to tour Jordan Hare Stadium, the athletic complex and go watch practice
and possibly meet some players. Isn't it great that his bone marrow came back
clean? I can't believe Kim saved that little tid bit till the end yesterday.
Basically, from all the scans and tests, Taylor is in remission, although he
could have some cancer cells floating around inside him. We all need to focus
our prayer to a safe transplant, and they this cancer does not relapse. There is
a 70% chance he will relapse, but we have faith in God and know that Taylor will
be in the 30%. We pray that the transplant will kill any remaining cancer cells
that might be in his body, so that he will never again have to face this battle.
We also pray for all the other children out there who are battling cancer.

Second Annual “Spring
Into Giving Blood Drive" Set for April 4th, On Friday, April 4th, The
Point 106.9 FM, Alabama’s ABC 33/40, and Colonial Brookwood Village will join
with your American Red Cross by sponsoring the second annual “Spring Into
Giving” blood drive. Blood donations will be accepted between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
in the old Betsy Prince location on the upper level of Colonial Brookwood
Village in Birmingham. Everyone attempting to donate will receive a Red Cross
tee shirt and the good feeling of knowing you helped save a life. Please go out
and give a pint of blood in Taylor's honor!

March 17,
2003

We made it home safely after a
hectic morning. We started our day at MacDonald's. Guess who was angry with the
menu? He stared at his biscuit until we were all done then he was ready to eat.
We are already behind schedule, so we opt to bring it with us. What a mess!!! Oh
well, it wasn't our car. It all landed in his lap anyway, so it was okay. We got
to the airport and it was so busy. There was about an hour wait just to get to
the x-ray machine. Thankfully we had a stroller and got to skip the line:) Jim
set off the alarms again and I got stuck getting everything through the machine.
We finally got settled in for our wait to bored and low and behold we ran into a
friend from high school and his wife. We had a nice chat. Who'da thunk we would
find a friend in Orlando??

G-mom met us at the airport
and helped us get everything loaded up. She dropped Jim and Taylor off at the
hospital to start his urine collection. I went home to get our car. I met them
back at the hospital just in time to watch them put in the catheter. He was such
a big boy. He did cry, but he didn't have to be held down. He is not giving them
much since he didn't drink much the last few days. They are giving him IV fluids
to help him out. Tomorrow we will get some more tests. He still needs a little
more blood work, another EKG, and a dental consult. We will meet with the ENT
doctors to schedule a time for the new tube.

Everyone was worried Taylor
would be homesick since he didn't got to come home first. Whatever, 4-tower is
home to him. He has already had his peet peet for the night. He has been showing
all his Buzz toys to everyone and eating tootsie rolls. I am home washing
clothes and unpacking before the king of destruction gets home.

GOOD NEWS!! WE already
reported that Taylor's bone scan came back clear with the exception of one spot
on his skull that we think is uptake and is still healing. His bone marrow
biopsy results were in today. We have been very anxious to get them since we
left. His marrow is 100% clean. Praise God!! We know all your prayers and
support have gotten him this glorious news. Keep those prayers coming as we head
into the hardest phase of this journey.

March 16,
2003

Well we had a total change in
plans today. We did go to Universal and we all had a blast. I watched the
Twister movie, it was fun. While I was gone Taylor bought some goodies. After
viewing Twister, we took off in search for Taylor sized rides. We took him to a
play ground that he loved. He was mad when we finally picked him up and made him
leave. They had a lot of water games and such for kids, but Taylor can not get
his noodles wet, so that was all out. We didn't even attempt any shows. I think
he would have liked the Barney and Play house Disney once it got going, but
because of the long waits to get in, he is bored before it starts. There were a
lot of things Jim and I would like to have rode or seen, but Taylor gets bored
while he waits for us to take turns riding things and since this is his trip we
just didn't do it. Taylor had a blast posing by all the cars and chairs outside
Margaretville. We ate at Hard Rock and he enjoyed the cars and such in the
building. The kid's menu was all pictures, so he pointed and ordered his own
food. You guessed it, he pointed to peet-peet. You would think he would be tired
of it, but he isn't. We were done by noon, so we decided to go ahead and bite
the bullet and go to the Animal Kingdom. We got there around 1:15 only to find
out that it closes at 5pm, not worth the $100 admission. So, we went to MGM.
Taylor fell asleep in the car and thank goodness, didn't wake up when we put him
in the stroller. We shopped and mapped out our time while he slept. We went to
see a sound effect show. It was all done through head phones, so it wasn't noisy
enough to wake him up. It was however pitch black. I couldn't see him and I knew
if he woke up he would freak. I couldn't have gotten out if I wanted to. I was a
nervous wreck all through it. He woke up about 2 minutes before it was over and
by the grace of God the lights came on at that exact moment. He never made a
peep, just reached for Ca-Ca. We took the back lot tour and he was mesmerized by
the planes and the special effects water shows. Taylor got to spend his Disney
dollars any way he wanted. He spent just about all of it on Buzz stuff. His
favorite, the very annoying laser gun or maybe the bag full of tootsie rolls. I
think the highlight of today was going to Pizza planet. For those of you who
aren't up to speed with your cartoons that is the pizza place in Toy Story. It
really is a pizza place, but we had already eaten. We did play in the arcade. We
met Lilo and Stitch, and Shreck. We saw a bunch of characters, but the lines
were so long. We ended up missing our reservation for the Rainforest Cafe, so we
went to Downtown Disney to the other location. It was a 2 hour wait and it was
raining, so we left. We did, however, stumble upon a toy store that had Buzz and
Mr. Potato Head outside. We even managed to come out with nothing!! We went to
the old stand by, Golden Corral, for dinner. We thought maybe he would eat some
corn, but we were wrong. He still managed to eat the tops off of about 8 pieces
of pizza. After dragging him out (he wasn't finished) we went back to the hotel
and packed.

We will be arriving in B'ham
around 12:30 tomorrow and going straight to Children's Hospital. We will be
spending the night for a 24 hour urine test and several other procedures
including getting a new tube in his right ear. I am not looking forward to
keeping him still while he is catheterized. Last time we did this test was right
after surgery and he couldn't move. This should be very interesting. If all goes
well we will head to Auburn on Wednesday.

March 15,
2003

Today has been a shorter day,
despite the early, early wake up we had this morning. We all got up at 6AM
Orlando time (that's 5AM Birmingham time). We went to eat at Chef Mickey's,
located in the Contemporary Resort Hotel (the A-framed hotel that the monorail
runs through). Taylor got a kick out of watching the train come in and out of
the hotel every few minutes. He also warmed up to the characters, but not before
being scared to death, literally. The first character to come through to visit,
was Dale from Chip and Dale. He snuck up from behind on Mommy and Taylor. Taylor
turned to see this large stuffed animal right in his face, and he jumped clean
out of his skin. It really did scare him. But after that frightful encounter, he
did really well with all of the other characters, especially Goofy. Goofy
actually had the nerve to take night night and blow his nose with it! Taylor
then grabbed it from him, and blew his own nose. I think Taylor has a favorite
now with Goofy. After the breakfast, we took off in search of dauphins and
sharks at Sea World. It did not go as well as expected. Taylor got another break
in line pass (so that he could remain in his stroller and not have to leave it
at the gate of each attraction). We visited Dauphin Lagoon first, and got to see
some real life Dauphins close up, and even fed a couple of them. Taylor was
leery of touching the dauphins, so he nominated daddy to pet the dauphins.
Taylor was more of a director, than a hands on kind of dauphin watcher. After
petting the dauphins, we went to see the dauphin show. Taylor enjoyed the first
5 minutes of the show, but then got anxious and did not want to sit for the rest
of the show. Those dauphins sure can jump! After leaving the show a few minutes
early, we took off to see the sea lions and penguins. After that, mommy and
daddy went to ride Kraken, a bottomless roller coaster. They both had a blast!
After ridding the roller coaster, we took off for the Shamu Adventure Show. We
got there about 15 minutes early. By the time the show started, Taylor was ready
to go, so we watched the first 10 minutes of the show, and then Taylor just
couldn't take anymore, so we left. Taylor was already drained from Magic
Kingdom, so we decided to go eat lunch and then take a little nap. I bet you can
guess what Taylor had for lunch, you guessed it, peet peet from Olive Garden.
Our waitress actually took the time to hand make Taylor some sweet tea. He has
been deprived of sweet tea for 2 days now, and when he tasted it, he took about
20 big gulps, then let out this sigh, like thank you sooooo much. After eating,
we returned to the hotel to take that little nap. The little nap turned into a 4
hour nap, which Taylor really needed.

After our much needed nap we
headed back out. We went to an outdoor mall that had an FAO Schwartz toy store.
It wasn't nearly as big as the one in Vegas, but it still blew Taylor away. He
didn't quite understand that we have to take everything we buy back home on a
plane. He was picking huge cars and train kits. Finally he found just what he
wanted. His very on pack of "my sticky" which would be gum to the rest of us. No
matter how we tried we couldn't keep his mind off it, so he ate (literally) the
hole thing of bubble tape. We didn't see much else there that was note worthy.
We decided to head out and play a little goofy golf. Taylor did much better than
last summer in Gulf Shores. He did really well with waiting his turn. He hits
his ball a little closer than us. He goes to the hole and pushes it in or just
drops it in. He had a blast. He tried to go in after the ball on the 18th hole.
Gave us all a scare!! His foot fell right in and he almost fell over. We went to
a late dinner at Outback. We were pleased to see they had sweet tea on the menu.
Although it wasn't Alabama sweet. There is no peet-peet on the menu at Outback.
We ordered a grilled cheese. When it first came out he just looked at it and
said peet-peet. We decided when we finished we would stop and get a personal
pizza for him. However, he decided to eat it and ate bread and all. He then fed
himself an applesauce cup we brought with us. He got a little restless waiting
on us to finish, but we occupied him by making a bridge with the bubble tape
box.

Highlights of the day.....
Making a Buzz Lightyear pressed penny, Taylor's characture drawing, the safari
car at the toy store.

March 14,
2003

Hello!! It's Kim, Jim and
Taylor reporting to you live from Orlando. We have had a blast! Taylor didn't
eat very good this morning despite us going to his favorite place. We got to the
Magic Kingdom shortly after it opened. We rode the train first. Taylor enjoyed
the scenery along the way. We got off at Mickey's toon town. We met Mickey and
Taylor even gave him five. He still isn't tall enough for a lot of things and if
he is tall enough we were afraid it would scare him. He also came here with low
platelets so we are not chancing anything rough. We went from there to ride Buzz
Lightyear's ride. The line was long and the very rude man refused to allow us to
bring the stroller through the line because it was a fire hazard. (Remember that
fact for later) After an hour in line we got on the ride and he LOVED it. You
shoot at Zerg and score points and you steer it. He had a blast doing it and he
and daddy had 300,000 plus points.

Once that ride was over we
went to guest services and got a pass to use our stroller as a wheel chair and
we no longer had to wait in line!! That is where we met the security guard who
had leukemia when he was 3. He gave Taylor some stickers and that occupied him
for the longest. Now we were ready to conquer the park. We went in the exit of
It's a Small World and got right on. Taylor really enjoyed this ride. He was
pointing at the girl dolls and blowing kisses. He pointed out hearts, swings,
frogs and cows. After this ride we went and got a drink and Jim and I took turns
going to ride Space Mountain. Once again there is no sweet tea here so we got
milk. He didn't want it at first, but he eventually gave in and had an entire
pint. We rode The Pirates of the Caribbean. We forgot it had a small drop in it
and though Taylor never cried or acted like it bothered him, he did cover his
eyes the rest of the way. We caught him peaking out to see what was going on.

Bet you can't guess what we
had for lunch?? Peet peet! He lapped it up. We had to take off his ace bandage
and re-apply it. We have never seen so many people starring before. They were
shocked and amazed at his noodles. Taylor finally sacked out and we shopped
while he napped. When he woke up Jim took all our packages to the car. While he
was gone Taylor and I rode the train around the park, twice. He was bored by the
time we got off. We headed back to do the things he liked one last time. When we
got to the Buzz ride and showed them the pass she told us to go on through the
regular line. We had no problem waiting, but we were a little miffed with the
guy who earlier refused to let us through even though we explained why we needed
to stroller. (Chemo makes you sensitive to sun, so his bald head needed to be
covered). At the end of the day, we rode the monorail all the way to Epcot, so
that Taylor could see the "big golf ball." He really enjoyed riding the
monorail.

We came back to the hotel
after a long day and ordered pizza, who'da thunk it? We bathed and changed our
dressing over our noodles. He did much better than expected with all the
excitement of it all. We are having a blast. We can not thank you enough,
Sherrie. We have to go to bed now. We are eating with the characters tomorrow at
7Am, that is 6 our time. YUCK!! After eating, we plan to tackle Sea World. I
have never been before, and the last time Jim went, he was 10, so it will be an
uncharted experience for all three of us.

March 13,
2003

Tonight, we went to Downtown
Disney to eat some dinner and look around in a few of the shops. Taylor had a
blast, but was a little cranky at the restaurant. After we left, he seemed to
settle down, while still carrying the roll around, and devouring the middle of
it. For some reason, they do not have sweet tea down here. What's up with that?
We went to Wal-Mart to get some cookies and possibly some tea. The only tea we
could find was some small bottles that, when we returned to taste test it, we
found it to be terrible. We took a few more pictures, which can be found here.
I will put a temporary link at the top of this page to access these pictures.

We have arrived in Orlando.
The flight down here was smooth. Taylor was awake for take off, then fell
asleep. He awoke in time to see us land in Orlando. Trying to figure out how to
carry him, plus all of our bags has been the tricky part, but we have managed so
far. We are in our hotel room now and plan to drive to Downtown Disney in a few
minutes to eat and look around. The hotel room is awesome! Thanks Sherrie. We will update this page throughout Taylor's vacation, sometimes 3 or
4 times a day, so stay tuned!!! Pictures that we take will be posted as soon as
possible here. This will be
the fastest and easiest way for us to post pictures while we are away. We will
post new pictures 3 to 4 times a day also! Bye for now, Taylor is ready to eat
some peet peet.

March 12,
2003

It is only 3:30, but it has
already been a long day. Taylor is sacked out on the couch. We got up early to
have blood drawn. His counts are as follows. WBC: 9,900, RBC: 3, 210, HCRT:
26.9, PLT: 28,000. He will get a shot tonight and tomorrow and we will be done
with those. That should be the last shot for a while. He will receive Neupogen
through IV on the transplant floor. After his nurse left Taylor and daddy rushed
me to get ready. We went to the mall and rode the frog on the carousel. We had
to have a blue balloon. The balloon turned out to be a problem. Our xterra has
no air right now so we had to roll down the windows. This made the balloon
bounce off Taylor's head making him very angry. We went to everyone's favorite,
the Olive Garden, for lunch. As usual Taylor ate like a pig. He ate all of his
cheese peet-peet and a lot of mommies noodles as well as salad and bread. We
also stopped by Amsouth to visit daddy's friends. Taylor was hammin' it up. He
made out like a bandit. He had to get a sack to carry all the candy, pens, beads
etc. he snagged from desks.

We will be heading to Orlando
tomorrow. We will still be able to update the webpage daily, and also add
pictures each day. More to be updated later...

Second Annual “Spring
Into Giving Blood Drive" Set for April 4th, On Friday, April 4th, The
Point 106.9 FM, Alabama’s ABC 33/40, and Colonial Brookwood Village will join
with your American Red Cross by sponsoring the second annual “Spring Into
Giving” blood drive. Blood donations will be accepted between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
in the old Betsy Prince location on the upper level of Colonial Brookwood
Village in Birmingham. Everyone attempting to donate will receive a Red Cross
tee shirt and the good feeling of knowing you helped save a life. Please go out
and give a pint of blood in Taylor's honor!

March 11,
2003

Today was a fast day. I guess
it was because yesterday was so long. We spent the day packing our bags for
Orlando. We also had to call the airport and see how to travel with all his
meds, needles and syringes. It doesn't seem like it will be that big of a deal.
We shall see!! Taylor got a kick out of watching Uncle Dugan blow leaves. All my
blinds have a single slat at his eye level turned up. He took a good nap after
pitching a fit over tookies or cookies to the rest of us. He woke up to find
Gram here and had a nice time playing and he was determined to keep her here. He
has shown her everything including how he rocks out with the American Idol
singers.

We will have Home Health come
tomorrow and draw blood. There is a possibility he will need a transfusion
before we leave. We don't want him tired while we are gone. Jim is off so we are
going to enjoy the nice weather and get out some. On that note, I better get off
this computer and finish packing and cleaning ( a never ending job around here). Remember Austin, Sophie,
Liam, James, Deanna, Meagan, Dillon, Jeremy, Aaron, Tyler, Sean, Zoe, Ashton,
Ally, and Alexis. Alexis is going home tomorrow!! Way to go Alexis. Also
remember all our friends battling Neuroblastoma.

March 10,
2003

Today was the longest day in
the history of all days. we arrived at clinic at 8:15. By 8:45 we had done all
the basics of weight, height, temp, and blood pressure. We had also had blood
drawn from his central line and had Emla cream put on his hip bone and arm. Emla
is a numbing cream put on the site several hours before a procedure. Now the
waiting began. At about 11:00 we had to go draw a little more blood. This was to
send off with his bone marrow sample. I felt awful at that point. I had been
telling Taylor all morning that as soon as Miss Meredith was finished with him
he could eat. Miss Christy drew his first labs and Meredith drew the second set.
As soon as she was finished he said "okay, eat". We both felt awful. He still
had a while to go before he could eat. Finally around 12:00 he was taken to
Simon Sedation. It didn't take much for him to be sedated since he was already
so sleepy. He was finished in about 30 minutes. He took another 30 to wake up.
We finally roused him enough to be able to leave the sedation room. We went back
to clinic and waited some more. Not to bad this time. While we waited I took a
sneak peak in his ears myself and determined that the right one was indeed STILL
infected. When Dr. Castleberry came in I told him of my diagnosis. He told me
one seminar didn't make me a Doctor. I beg to differ seeing as I was correct. He
gave us more drops to get us through the vacation and said we will get another
tube in that ear next week. That simple infection could prove disastrous during
transplant, so we need to get it taken care of now. Now it was time to eat,
Taylor scarfed the cheese from a grilled cheese while we waited to see the
dentist. You want to talk about traumatic!! Taylor was so tight lipped
that she couldn't look. She had to get this contraption to pry his mouth open
then lock it open. He was gagging and going crazy. I was nervous that his gums
were bleeding and we only have 22,000 platelets.

We met a 5 year old boy today
who was diagnosed at 13 months with Neuroblastoma. He had a stem cell transplant at 19
months. He was fine, no hearing aids or noticeable problems. It is always
encouraging to see that. We hope and pray that his yearly check up was good.

We may have to miss Auburn
due to our schedule. He will need to draw labs Wednesday and possibly get blood
before leaving so that day is out. We scheduled it for the 19th, but that is the
day that we are doing his 24 hour urine sample and possibly getting the new
tube. We will just have to play it by ear. I know I have made Meredith crazy
trying to arrange everything around our schedule, but it is very much
appreciated. We love you Meredith!!

You think the day sounds long
so far, well think again. Jim went to pick up our prescriptions from Rite Aid
and they didn't fill the ear drops because the prescription was for eye drops
and he wasn't smart enough to know that eye drops can be used as ear drops, but
not vice versa or to just call the Dr. to verify. He waits to ask us at 5:30
when all the doctors and nurses are gone and we can't call. He finally filled
that. To top it off they did not refrigerate his Neupogen, that is the 400
dollar per shot dose he gets nightly. It took over 2 hours to find out if it was
ruined or not. Luckily it is not.

Not much to report. Gram came
and of course had all kinds of goodies. Taylor refused to take a nap so we
headed to McDonalds. Taylor was asleep before we got to the interstate. Mommy
and Gram ate while we drove around and he slept. We knew he would wake up as
soon as we pulled in the driveway and he did. We will go in tomorrow and get lab
work. If his platelets are low he will get a transfusion then go to the OR. If
his platelets are okay we will go strait to the Operating room for his bone
marrow biopsy. That will take about an hour and then a little while in recovery.
Taylor usually doesn't hurt to much afterwards. I hope he doesn't tomorrow
because his next stop will be the dental clinic. He will have a full exam o make
sure there are no problems that need to be taken care of before transplant. I
think he will have several blood tests done and if all goes well that will be
the last visit until after our trip. He will spend one more night on 4 tower
when we get back. He will get a 24 hour urine test and have to get catheterized
for it. He could do it at home, but I have no desire to collect tt and monitor
the cath. After that we will try to do as many fun things as we can before the
24th when we admit to the stem cell unit. We will have some hard days ahead of
us, but with all your support and prayers we will get through them. If you have
not read the history page, you can do so by
clicking here, it was just added last week.

Today was fun for everyone.
We slept late since Mommy and Daddy were out so late. We went out to eat and
bowling with Chris and Temperance. We wont mention my bowling score!!! Today
Taylor played with Papa and G-mom while daddy and mommy got out. Daddy went
shopping for stuff for the room and mommy went with Gram. It was a beautiful day
to be outside. Taylor is not acting like he feels really great, but his counts
are still low. Plus, he is worn out. He is finally drinking!!! He has only had
about 10 oz in the past week.

We need lots of prayers now.
We need for Taylor's tests to all be positive and clean of cancer. We need his
counts to rise and him to stay healthy, so we can have a great trip to Orlando
next week. We need to give a HUGE thank you to Sherrie for arranging our trip.
We will leave Thursday and fly directly to Orlando, and return on Monday. Thank
you to Sherrie and to the other person who helped make this possible for Taylor,
you do not know how thankful we are for what you did. Please remember all our
friends. Austin is back in the hospital with fever and some bleeding. Alexis is
doing great. She had an MRI Thursday and it was clean, no cancer!!! Morgan has
gone home from transplant and doing great. We have met some new friends at
Children's who need our prayers. Please remember Aaron, Tyler, James, Ally,
Deanna, Ashton, Jeremy, Dillon, and Zoe.

March 7,
2003

We got some very, very good
news today. Dr. Berkow came by to give us the results of the Bone Scan and the
CT Scan. The CT Scan was completely clear, no signs of new tumors anywhere in
his body. The Bone Scan, which is the second most important test behind the Bone
Marrow Biopsy, also came back with positive results. If you will remember the
last Bone Scan, Taylor still had some uptake, or residual cancer on his
forehead/skull. The Bone Scan showed a huge improvement over the last scan, and
while there was a small spot still on his forehead, Dr. Berkow thinks the spot
is not cancer, but just healing of the bone. It takes a while for the skull bone
to heal. We have some many people to thank, who have prayed for us, and these
wonderful results, but most importantly, God. He has answered our prayers, and
while this does not mean Taylor will be cancer free forever, it is a step in the
right direction. The Bone Marrow Biopsy, which Taylor will undergo on Monday,
will also be a very important test, to tell us if Taylor has any tumor cells
within his bone marrow. In October, Taylor had 50% cancer in his bone marrow.
This percentage improved down to 20% in late November. We hope Monday, it will
be do to 0%. As many of you know, these results are a step in the right
direction. Neuroblastoma is a very difficult cancer to beat. The reason is, very
often (70% of the time) children relapse within 2 years of being in remission.
This is due to Nueroblastoma Cancer Cells that lay dormant within the body, as
if they were healthy cells just sitting there sleeping. They are not prone to
chemotherapy, or any other drugs. They just sit in the body, and usually within
2 years, they turn on, and relapse occurs. This is why after Taylor's
transplant, he will be taking other drugs to hopefully wipe this hidden cells
out of his body for good, so that he will not relapse. He will have a chance to
get on another study where he will receive an GD2 Anti-body treatment, that is
part mouse cells, that if works properly, would go into his body, search out the
hidden tumor cells and attach to these cells. They can then train the body's own
immune system to attack these cells because they would be a foreign object (the
mouse cells). He will also be taking Accutane, which is another drug that hopes
to break down cancer cells, and keep them from growing and dividing. Taylor will
be randomized for the Anti-body treatment, but if for some reason, Taylor is
chosen not to receive the treatment, we do have other options, such as the
Anti-body treatment that Sloan Kettering Memorial uses up in New York City. We
should know soon if he will receive this in Birmingham, or not.

March 6,
2003

Today was a busy day, but not
as busy as we have had lately. He had an x-ray and some blood work. He had to
get some blood drawn from his arm for the first time in a long time. He did good
with all his tests. He feels much better today than he has the past few days.
His counts are still very low, but they are finally moving a little. Hopefully
he will continue to feel better daily. He has eaten a good bit today. It was all
junk, but it was food. He ate an entire bag of cheese puffs and then asked for
more. I went to get him some more and the machine took my money, but didn't give
me any cheese puffs. We finally got them!! He ate 2 of them! He did drink about
4 oz. of tea. He has had about 4 oz in the past week, so we are pretty excited.
Mommy went to talk to Anna's 6th grade class. I talked about Taylor and his
cancer, and answered all their questions. They had some great questions. I
really enjoyed it. Anna did a great job on her posters. She had a graph done that
looked very similar to the one we were shown in a conference the other day.
Great job Anna!!

March 5,
2003

Taylor had his MIGB Scan this
morning. The dye they inject him with for this scan had to be in his body for a
full 24 hours. Pa-Pa came and took him to the scan, while Kim and I went to hear
a lecture by Dr. Castleberry on Nueroblastoma. Dr. Castleberry is one of the
leading researchers in the world on Nueroblastoma, and it was very interesting
to hear what he had to say. It is truly a blessing that we have such an esteemed
doctor that specializes with Taylor's cancer right here in Birmingham. Taylor
should also have his hearing tests today. His counts still have not improved,
with his WBC at 130. Dr. Crawford said as soon as his body starts producing some
infection fighting cells, that he will let us go home.

From Jerry H. Cotney: I am writing you to ask for your support on behalf of
an AmSouth family and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Specifically, I am
training for a 100 mile "century ride" on June 1 as a member of the Society. The
ride will be with cyclists from all over the country around Lake Tahoe, NV.
Training and fund-raising necessary for this event are in honor of Claire
Collins, wife of fellow AmSouther Kevin Collins. For those who haven't met
Kevin, he is as friendly and genuine a person as you will find. Claire was
recently diagnosed with acute leukemia. Together, they are the parents of four
children. If you would like to help Mr. Cotney and his efforts, you can contact
him at 205-581-7350, or by email
jerry.cotney@amsouth.com for more information.

March 4,
2003

Taylor did very well during
the Bone Scan and CT Scan. The Bone Scan is a very traumatic experience for him.
He has to be awake for it, and they tape his body, arms and head down to the bed
so that he cannot move, and he has to lie like this for about 30 minutes. He
didn't scream as much as usual. Today he will have the MIGB Scan and hearing
test. They have to monitor his ears, due to the chemotherapy that he gets. One
of the drugs causes hearing loss of high pitch frequencies. Here is a
great article
on different types of scans that Taylor has had. A lot of people have asked us
about these scans, and it is hard to explain what they do.

March 3,
2003

The Heart Test is completed,
everything looked fine. They have scheduled his Bone Scan for 1pm today, and his
CT Scan following that at around 3pm. His MIGB Scan will be done tomorrow.
Please pray hard that all of these tests will come back, and no cancer will be
present in his body. These tests will be very important, and tell us how far we
have come since October. We hope and pray with faith that God has already done
his work and there will be no evidence or sign of cancer anywhere in Taylor's
body.

March 2,
2003

Taylor spent most of the day
with Pa-Pa and G-Mom. After Pa-Pa went to work, Aunt Jeanna came by to stay,
while we got some laundry done at the house. He had a very good afternoon nap,
sleeping for almost 3 hours. After waking up, he was a little cranky, but
finally got into a good mood. We walked back over to Children's Harbor and showed
mommy how to count cars on the street. Every car that went by was number five.
Tomorrow, we will find out if they will be able to do some of the tests that are
scheduled for next week. They should be able to move the CT Scan, Bone Scan and
MIGB Scan up, and also the dental and hearing tests. This will only leave us
with the bone marrow biopsy and urine/kidney test for next week.

March 1,
2003

Kim and I went to give blood
today at the Blood Drive Weatherly. Isn't giving blood such a wonderful
experience? I always feel really great after giving blood (well, I usually
always black out after giving blood, but then feel good about myself). After
recovering from my blackout spell, we left to go back to the hospital. Thanks to
Gram for keeping Taylor, and thanks to G-Mom for coming later in the day to help
out while mommy takes another girls night out. Taylor also received a
transfusion of platelets, which should help him feel much better, and help his
counts rebound faster.

Taylor spent all of yesterday
snoozing in clinic while we waited for a room. The hospital was full, but
thankfully we made it 4-tower. Taylor was a little puny and slept a lot. He did
however perk up when he caught a glimpse of a new riding toy. He has now taken
of a one day surgery car, they can have it back in a week. We took off on a
little adventure. The hospital was having a logo sale and it was across the
street from the Children's Harbor. I thought Taylor would enjoy the walk and he
did, but we never made it to the sale. As we went across the cross walk he
noticed the men working and that is where we spent the next 30 minutes. They
waved at him and pulled some buckets up with ropes. He was fascinated by it all.
He loves to see all of the dump trucks and back hoes that they work with.

Mommy had a girls night out
with a few of the nurses. Thanks girls for the invite. I needed that!

Taylor received a unit of
blood and the pre-medication knocked him out for the night. He was up early this
morning ready to vroom-vroom. He seems to feel a little better already. If he
eats and drinks enough he will not have to be hooked up to IV fluids all the
time. We will also be doing most of the tests we had scheduled for late in March
this week. Yeah, at least there is some good in this hospital stay. If you
haven't yet, we added a history
page, where you can read back all the way from August on our little journey to
this point.

Taylor started running a
fever last night around 9PM. The doctor on call did not want to bring him into
ER unless necessary. He wants to hold off until this morning to bring him into
clinic. We will monitor him throughout the night (today was updated late last
night, fyi)

We have added two new links
to the front of Taylor's page. The first new link is an news article link, where
you can find news articles that Taylor has been in. The second, is a history
link, that will take you back to the first days, when Taylor started limping,
leading all the way up to his diagnosis, and surgery. A lot of people who follow
this page, don't really know the full story behind what we went through in order
to get the correct diagnosis. I even sometimes doubted Kim for taking Taylor to
the doctor so many times. I guess I doubted her due to the way the doctors
treated us. They seemed to treat us like we were worrying too much over such
little things. If not for Kim, it could have been months more before we learned
of our fate, Taylor's fate. We sometimes get mad just thinking about how
stubborn the orthopedic doctors were, and how they ordered the same three tests
time after time after time. I glad she was so persistent. I hope you enjoy the
little flash back, I know it was difficult for her to think back, and put into
words what was so tragic for the both of us.

Weatherly Children's Learning
Center in Alabaster will be having a blood drive Saturday from 10-3. It is also
in Taylor's honor. Thank you Weatherly!!!

We just got Taylor's counts
back. They are......... WBC-200, PLT-38,000, ANC-20, 10% neutrophils. That
means that he only has 20 white blood cells that can fight infection. That is
not good. So, this will be a slow weekend. They expect to see him over the
weekend with fever. I hope we can go tomorrow or Monday. I really do not care to
ever see the ER again. I hope to prove them wrong and not get neutropenic, but I
also want to get those tests over with now so we can go on vacation. Oh well, I
guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Taylor has played pretty good
today. He is slowing down some. At least he doesn't make such a big mess! He has
wasted an entire pack of saltine crackers. He takes a bite and says "broke" and
throws it away. What do you do? If you tell him to stop, he will get mad an quit
eating. I guess we will have to just live with the wasted crackers. He is
sleeping now and looking just as cute as can be.

Weatherly Children's Learning
Center in Alabaster will be having a blood drive Saturday from 10-3. It is also
in Taylor's honor. Thank you Weatherly!!!

Today has been a
restful day. It is so gloomy outside and I think Taylor notices too. He slept
until 10:15 this morning. I guess his counts are beginning to drop. He is still
playing and eating fine. He now knows how to put discs in and out of the DVD
player, so we watch about 15 minutes of every movie we own. It's a blast!
Taylor has several new interests. He really enjoys matching things. If he sees
something and he knows he has a toy that matches he runs to get it and screams
"a match, a match".

He is also into fire trucks.
He loves them, but it isn't making him want to sleep in his fire truck bed!!

Yesterday was a big day for
mommy. She got her hair all cut off. It is the shortest it has ever been (at my
ears). It will take some getting used to and some practice fixing it, but I like
it.

Thank you to all the Amsouth
employees who gave or are giving blood. We appreciate it and so do all the other
families out there in need of blood. We apologize to those of you who past out:)

Please pray for Alexis (who
is having surgery today), Austin, Sophie, Liam and the Bullion's. Please
remember all the kids with Neuroblastoma too...Taylor, Sophia, Jackson, Morgan,
Chris, Cam, Jacob, Grace, Sarah, Henry, Jake, Harrison, Rayshawn and
Trey. New prayer request: Glenn Harrison (Kim's uncle's brother) had a stage 4
brain hemorrhage, and he and his family could use the thoughts and prayers.

Let me clarify who Glenn is,
after writing that I realized it made no since. Glenn is My aunt's brother in
law. That really is my uncle's brother, but that was confusing! Anyway, he past
away last night after being in a coma for over a week. Please remember his wife
and son, Cindy and Taylor, as well as the rest of the family in your prayers.

February 25,
2003

A new photo album can be
viewed here,
same pictures as above, just a new and different format!!! Please tell us what
you think of the new photo album. Taylor's
Protocol has been updated to
include all the tests and dates that will be performed prior to stem cell
transplant. It kind of killed any vacation chances that Taylor might have had.

February 24,
2003

The nurse came by to check
Taylor's CBC (complete blood count). They should start to drop sometime during
the first of this week. Pop and Pappy came by to visit, Taylor had fun running
around the house showing who is in charge. We have updated the Special Thanks
page (somewhat) and have added 18 new pictures. The last two pictures, we have
gotten a lot of questions about his surgery and where the tumor was removed. The
last picture is his
scar from surgery. The
second to last picture is a picture of his "noodles." These are his broviac
lines, and these are how the chemotherapy drugs are delivered to his body, how
blood is drawn from his body, and for other things such as IV fluids and
antibiotics. The lines go into his chest and run up under his skin to his neck,
where they enter the large artery in his neck.

My work (Amsouth Bank) will
be holding a blood drive (for Amsouth Employees to donate) in honor of Taylor on
February 25 & 26. The times are as follows: February 25th - Downtown AHP-UL Auditorium 8:30-4:30, February 25th -
Op Center 10:00-3:00, February 26th - Riverchase Private Dining Room 9:30-4:00.
For more information, or to schedule a time to give blood, you can contact Julia
Gordon. Here is an article the Red Cross did about Taylor: (http://www.redcrossalabama.org/news/news030116.htm).

February 23,
2003

Wow!!! What a turnout today!
The goal for today was 30 people, and I believe 45 people were able to give
today, and they turned away 7 people. They were able to meet their two-day goal
of 70 people. Thanks to all the people that took time out of their day to come
out and give blood. Taylor got to come out today for about an hour, and then
went home with Gram. I would like to thank Eastern Valley Church and Brad for
sponsoring the blood drive in conjunction with Xi Beta Xi, and I would also like
to thank Xi Beta Xi for the volunteers that were there to help out. Thanks goes
out to everyone that donated blood, and I would like to point out a few people.
To all the men from US Steel that came out Saturday to give blood before you had
to go into work, thanks! To Sonya and her mom, for driving all the way from
Springville to give blood, thanks! To Dennis and Leigh, for driving all the way
from Calera for Taylor and to give blood, thanks! To Jessie, who drove all the
way from West Blocton, thanks! To all the people who came out, to learn that you
could not give for various reasons, thanks! To all of my old classmates that
came out (Jessie, Blake, Dennis, & Wes) it was great to see you, and I really
appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. I would also like to thank all of the
American Red Cross workers, we appreciate what you do on a daily basis.

February 22,
2003

The weather had a damper
on the blood drive today. But it did not damper the mood that Taylor was in. He
stayed for all of the blood drive, and we appreciate all the people that came
out to give blood. They had to turn away about 17 people today, including Pa-Pa
and G-Mom. They went on a cruise and spent 2 hours in Honduras, and can not give
blood until October. A couple of other couples that went with them also could
not give blood. Hopefully the turn out will be better tomorrow. The goal for
today was 40 people, and while 28 people were able to give blood, they turned
down 17 for various reasons. Thanks to all the people that did come out today
and give!

We were discharged around
10AM. We had a nice talk with Dr. Lucas and got all the details of the drugs
Taylor will receive before transplant. It doesn't sound as scary and hard as we
thought, but I know we have some rough days ahead.

February 21,
2003

Today was a very fun day.
Taylor was feeling great and running like a mad man. His LAST bag of chemo
finished up around 7:00 and we headed to the Children's Harbor to play. He had a
great time stacking blocks. Taylor enjoyed his peet-peet in the family lounge
tonight. I guess he needed a little change. We were at the nurses station until
almost midnight. He was a showboat, flexing muscles, making faces, wearing
daddies glasses. He finally had to give in and go to bed. He slept very good. We
had no interruptions since he was technically done with treatment. Taylor's dare
devil attitude finally caught up with him. He decided to stand up while riding
his bike and went right over the side. He ripped the tape from his line, but
thank goodness for stress loops, his lines are still intact.

Don't forget the blood drive
tomorrow 1-6 and Sunday 1-4. Taylor will be there Saturday!!

February 20,
2003

Still no problems with the
chemotherapy. He will finish his last bag of cytoxan tonight, and should be
through with doxorubicin and vincristine tomorrow night around 9pm.We also have
his stem cell schedule. He will have some tests run the week of March 9 (Bone
Marrow Biopsy, Bone Scan, CT Scan, MIGB Scan, and 24-hr urine/kidney test). If
Taylor goes back into the hospital with fever, they will try to schedule the
Bone, CT and MIGB scan then, that way he will only have the 24 hr urine and bone
marrow biopsy during the week of the 9th, and it will not cut into our vacation
that much. He is scheduled to go into the stem cell floor on March 24.
Chemotherapy will start March 25th and run through March 28th. He will then have
3 days of rest, with the transplant on April 1st. More about the transplant and
drugs he will be taking will be posted later.

February 19,
2003

Taylor is doing great with
this round of chemotherapy. While he hasn’t gotten sick from his chemotherapy,
he did throw up earlier today. As everyone knows, Taylor loves cheese, so Kim
and Gram ordered Taylor a stuffed crust cheese pizza, which to him is “peet peet”.
Well he was so excited to be eating peet peet, that he was stuffing cheese into
his mouth faster than Gram could rip it into small bite size pieces. Well a
piece got stuck in his throat, making him gag, so up came all that cheese. After
that, he laid down, but when he realized there was cheese in the crust, he
jumped up, yelled out “cheese” and proceeded to stick his finger into the crust
and waive it around in the air!

February 18, 2003

It is very hard to see your
son so full of energy and feeling so good, lying there in bed getting all these
terrible drugs that will make him sick again. He is such a little trooper. His
chemotherapy started last night at around 9PM. During this
cycle (cycle 6) Taylor will
be getting Vincristine,
Doxorubicin,
Cytoxan, and
Mesna. He usually gets
sick about 9 hours after starting which will be sometime tomorrow morning.
Because of the late start, this will push us back to Saturday before we can go
home. Taylor will also be getting a transfusion of blood tomorrow morning
because his hematocrit is so low (Don't forget the blood drive Saturday and
Sunday, a map and information are posted on the
"How to Help" page). NBC-13
news called the hospital yesterday and want to do a news segment about Taylor.
They are coming tomorrow sometime around 3PM. We are not sure when it will air,
or what it is about, but we assume they will be covering the blood drive this
weekend. After this last round of chemotherapy, after his counts rebound back
up, Taylor will be admitted back to the hospital to run every test that they did
when he was diagnosed. This will be important, very important, and will tell us
if there is any cancer still present in his bones or bone marrow. No matter what
the outcome of the tests, he will still go through with his Stem Cell Transplant
and radiation treatments. If you would like to see the rest of his protocol, you
can do so by clicking here.
We are planning to take Taylor on a trip before his transplant, but we will have
to sit down with our doctors and nurses to see if we can push those tests back a
few days. We were looking to go March 7-16, but Dr. Berkow wants to run all
those tests (CT Scan, Bone Scan, MIGB Scan, Bone Marrow Biopsy) on March 11 &12.
Hopefully we can push those back to March 17 & 18, but we will see.

Please remember Austin, Alexis, Sophie, Liam, Nathan and the Bullion's.
Please remember all the kids with Neuroblastoma too...Taylor, Sophia, Jackson,
Morgan, Chris, Cam, Jacob, Grace, Sarah, Henry, Jake, Harrison, Rayshawn and
Trey. New prayer request: Glenn Harrison (Kim's uncle's brother) had a stage 4
brain hemorrhage, and he and his family could use the thoughts and prayers.

Don't forget the blood drive
Saturday (1-6) and Sunday (1-4). If you wish to give platelets, you will need to
call the Red Cross to make an appointment. They won't have that machine at the
church. Also, my work (Amsouth Bank) will be holding a blood drive (for Amsouth
Employees to donate) in honor of Taylor on February 25 & 26. The times are as
follows: February 25th - Downtown AHP-UL Auditorium 8:30-4:30, February 25th -
Op Center 10:00-3:00, February 26th - Riverchase Private Dining Room 9:30-4:00.
For more information, or to schedule a time to give blood, you can contact Julia
Gordon. Here is an article the Red Cross did about Taylor:(http://www.redcrossalabama.org/news/news030116.htm).

February 17, 2003

We spent a fun day at home
playing. Ca-Ca was off and he helped us make a mess in the living room. We had
lots of people come over today. Miss Tammy came and drew labs and pop came over
to play for a while. Papa and G-Mama brought dinner and helped Ca-Ca work on the
room. We cleaned up the house and packed for the hospital. Taylor's counts
were... WBC 3,600 and PLTS 90,000. His hematocrit was only 21, so we will more
than likely get a transfusion tomorrow. We are off to clinic tomorrow morning
and we expect to come home on Friday. It is very odd, but I am sad that this
part is over. Not sad that treatment is over, but sad because now this is my
"normal" and now I will have to get a new routine. Plus, we have made so many
wonderful friends with the staff and families on 4-tower. I guess we have one
more neutropenic visit to look forward too:) We hope to find out which way we
were randomized for the antibody treatments and a more detailed schedule for the
stem cell transplant. We will pass all of that info along as soon as we know. We
will also be scheduling a lot of testes tomorrow. After this round of chemo
Taylor will get a day of tests like the day he was diagnosed. They will compare
all these test results to see how far he has come since October.

New prayer request: Glenn
Harrison (Kim's uncle's brother) had a stage 4 brain hemorrhage. I am not sure
what that means medically, but I now he and his family could use the thoughts
and prayers.

Don't forget the blood drive
Saturday (1-6) and Sunday (1-4). If you wish to give platelets, you will need to
call the Red Cross to make an appointment. They won't have that machine at the
church.

February 16, 2003

We had a nice Sunday. Almost
normal. We went to Sam's and Lowe's and then to McDonald's for lunch. Taylor
fell asleep in the car and lucky for mommy he didn't wake up when she moved him
to the bed!! Taylor slept in his bed again last night. He didn't do as well this
time. He woke up at 2:15 looking for "mine" and realized where he was and got
all freaked out. We will have labs drawn tomorrow and should know by tomorrow
afternoon rather we will or won't have chemo on Tuesday.

Don't forget the blood drive
Saturday (1-6) and Sunday (1-4). If you wish to give platelets, you will need to
call the Red Cross to make an appointment. They won't have that machine at the
church.

Let me start by saying that
Taylor slept in his OWN bed last night!! We had a very busy day today. We went
to the circus at the galleria. Taylor got bored half way through it and we left.
We rode the big green frog on the carousel. He also got to go pick out a toy
from the toy store. He picked a golf cart. Go figure, We are still eating great.
He had chick-fil-A while we watched the circus. Once that was over mommy and
daddy wanted Olive Garden and Taylor did too. He ate pizza, salad, and mommies
noodles. It was so nice out today that Taylor got to play outside a little. He
rode his gator and his bike. He helped Daddy pick up leaves and he kicked a huge
ball all over the yard. We attempted hop scotch, but he is not a good hopper.

Mommy ran into several of the
kids she use to teach. It was great to see you Abby and Taylor!!! Mommy also had
a spa appointment today only to get there and them have no record of it. I
had to reschedule for next month. I will really need it by the time I get there.

Please continue to pray for
Austin, Alexis, Morgan, Sophie, Liam, the Bullion's and all the others out there
going through hard times.

February 14, 2003

Happy Valentine's Day!

Field trip! Taylor and I went
to the hospital just to visit and give out all his Valentine's Day cards and
candy. He had a blast being there for no reason. He was full of hugs and kisses
and enjoyed showing off his new heart necklace and Cancer bear. We also went to
eat with daddy. I bet you can't guess what he ate? A cheese pizza minus the
dough! We met a new friend today. His name was Emerson and he goes to Weatherly.
It was nice to meet him and his family, We hope their visit was quick and
painless. Taylor got some cool trucks from the book fair at the hospital. Mommy
is very tired, but seeing as Taylor caught a power nap in the car, she wont be
getting a nap today.

Please keep Austin, Alexis,
Morgan and the Bullion's in your prayers. Also, remember little Sophie. She is
done with her inpatient but still has over a year of treatment left. Her mommy
had a baby boy yesterday. His name is Liam. He has a small heart problem that
should clear up within a year with medicine. Please pray for his healing as
well.

February 13, 2003

Mommy got to be the patient
today. I went to the Doctor for my sinus infection. It took forever, but I
finally saw the doctor and got a cortisone shot and 2 other prescriptions. Just
a touch of humor.....I got my shot with an 18 gauge needle. For those of you
that are lost right now, you don't want to know. The rest of you are laughing as
was I when she gave it. I am already feeling much better. Taylor had labs drawn
again today. It was supposed to be canceled, but since they called we told them
to come on with hopes of starting chemo tomorrow. No such luck. He is getting
there....WBC 3,500 PLT 33,000. Platelets need to get to 75,000 and it is looking
good for Tuesday. I know you are all wondering why the WBC is good though it is
lower than Monday. That is due to stopping the shot. Without the growth hormone
to help him grow the cells he dropped back off, but to have 3500 on his own is
great! That is also enough for him to get out and about this weekend. We plan to
head back to the mall and get him out of this house. We finally cleaned up the
living room!! Although you can't tell it now. No, not really. Daddy had his own
method today. He put the baby gate up blocking the hallway. Taylor couldn't go
past it to the play room until he piled all the toys he had out in front of the
gate. It seemed to work well.

We wish you all a happy
Valentine's Day. Hopefully Cupid has given you all the love you wanted. Please
continue to pray for Austin, Alexis, Morgan, the Bullion's and all the others
out there dealing with unfortunate circumstances.

February 12, 2003

Last night Taylor lost his
tube in his right ear. I wont even tell you how gross it was!! The Doctors said
it was fine since he has had it for 15 months and all we need to watch is the
hole healing properly and of course infection. Depending on how he does with
infection they will decide if he needs a second set. Probably not since he
rarely goes outside or in public. The house is looking more and more like a
tornado hit it and for whatever reason, mommy just doesn't care this week.

Please pray for all of our
new and old friends dealing with cancer. Remember Austin as he starts the next
part of his journey and Morgan as she enters the stem cell unit.

February 11, 2003

Taylor has had a normal
Tuesday. Mommy is not feeling well and hasn't felt like picking up, so 2 days of
toys are all over the place. Oh well, we will think about that another day. We
got our picture of Taylor back today. It looks so great hanging over the
fireplace. There is really nothing new to report. We slept later than normal
after the busy night last night. He ate like a pig again. 2 pieces of cheese
toast for breakfast and dinner consisted of a bowl of oatmeal and 2 pieces of
pizza. We did manage to get 3 glasses of milk in him rather than all tea.

please continue to pray for
all our other friends dealing with cancer. The Bullions, Alexis, Austin and
Morgan. Austin should be leaving the hospital tomorrow and going to Hope Lodge
for a few weeks. Way to go Austin!!! Morgan goes in to Duke tomorrow to get
ready for her stem cell transplant.

February 10, 2003

Taylor's nurse just
left. She drew his labs and agrees that it is very unlikely he will be admitted
tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed, we really want to get this last round over
with. We will update today more later.

We just learned that the
Build-A-Bear workshop has a childhood cancer awareness bear named Nikki Bear. It
is named for a young girl who lost her battle to cancer. It comes with a
childhood awareness pin and $1 of the cost goes to childhood cancer society. If
you are going to build a bear please consider this purple Nikki Bear.

We have good news and bad
news. Taylor has a WBC of 15,000 meaning we can stop the neupogen shot. However,
his platelets are 18,000 and have to be 75,000 for chemo. we will get blood
drawn again on Monday and try for chemo next Tuesday. This is exactly what
happened in December, so we expected it.

Taylor got yet another night
out on the town. We went to the Galleria for the first time since October. He
was in heaven. He was a little upset that he couldn't sit in the big race car
outside the Nascar place. We just happened to run into G-Mom and Papa. He was so
so excited to have them and the mall he was just giddy. We went to build a Nikki
Bear and Taylor had a blast. He was a little afraid of the stuffing machine so
daddy did that, but he loved bathing her and brushing him. Once again he ate
like a pig on some Chick-fil-a. He rode the carousel about 3 times. He had so
much fun. We use to spend a lot of time at the mall before he was diagnosed, so
I know he missed it. I feel nervous about taking him out, but when I see how
much fun he has, it is all worth it.

February 9, 2003

Taylor had a fabulous Sunday.
It was nice out so we took off to Wal-mart. He picked himself out some Scooby
sun glasses and heart stickers. He really enjoyed being out. We ran into one of
the parents of a child I use to to teach. She was in the middle of trying to get
him a present, so he got to pick out even more stuff. She didn't have to do it,
but it was very nice. It was great to see you Cheryl. After Wal-mart we headed
to Taylor's favorite place to eat, Golden Corral. He hasn't lost his ability to
get his monies worth there! He ate and ate. Jim and I were finished and plates
gone and he was still going. He ate 2 helpings of corn and green beans, a yeast
role, rice, pizza, and ice cream. Hopefully that is another pound! He was very
tired, but he needed that little get away. He had a blast. When we got home we
had some more company. Chris, Temperance, and Christian came over. Taylor was
very interested in the baby, He even let me hold him. He didn't go far, but he
never protested my holding him.

February 8, 2003

Taylor had some visitors
today. Papa and G-mom came to play while daddy worked on the new room and mommy
went shopping. He is starting to really fight us on cleaning his site and
getting his shot. I guess he is just getting tired of doing it. Can we really
blame him? We need to thank Amanda and Mackenzie for helping us out Saturday.
They delivered a cool train and Taylor busied himself with that instead of
worrying about what I was doing to his central lines. Thanks guys!! Don't
forget the blood drive February 22nd and 23rd at Eastern Valley Baptist church.
Xi Beta Xi bought a very cute book about a little girls journey with cancer. It
is written in her words and illustrated child like. They have put a sticker in
the front cover with Taylor's name on it and we will donate them to the hospital
to give to newly diagnosed families. I know little gestures like that meant so
much to us and it is great to be able to help others. Thank you Xi Beta Xi.

February 7, 2003

Taylor's clinic visit was
good. He weighed over a pound more than Monday. I guess the 6 biscuits, 2 pieces
of cheese toast, 1 grilled cheese, and 2 cups of apple sauce he ate on Tuesday
paid off. He did not need blood as he had a hematocrit of 25, WBC of 1,??? and
platelets were 20,000. We had a short visit in the clinic and that gave us
time to visit 4-tower. Taylor has come so far since October. He went with a
nurse to another wing of the hospital to get some stuff and never thought twice
about me. His clinic visits are drastically different as well. We used to have
to weigh ourselves then weigh holding him. Now he walks in taking his shoes off
and jumping on the scales, taking his arms out of his shirt and holding it up
for the blood pressure cuff and thermometer and he knows right where the suckers
are when it's all over. There is always one in the flavor he likes seeing as he
is the only 2 year old on Earth who likes root beer dum-dums. We are scheduled
for chemo on Tuesday, but we do not expect his counts to be high enough. We will
have home health check counts Monday and see if we are high enough to go in or
wait a while. The last time he received this chemo he was pushed back a week for
the next round, so this isn't a big shock.

Please pray we can have chemo
as scheduled and keep our vacation plans as are. Please remember Alexis, Austin,
Morgan and the Bullions in your prayers.

February 6, 2003

The nurse called late
yesterday afternoon and decided that it would be best for Taylor to come into
clinic today for his blood work. That way, if he does need a blood transfusion,
he can get one today and not have to come back on Friday. We also have to pick
up another prescription of G-CSF, so it will work out for the best. Taylor is
eating a lot here lately, which is a very good sign. Back in August before all
of this, Taylor weighed 27 pounds. Well, 7 months later, he is 2-3 inches
taller, but only weighs 25 pounds. Our nurse said if he doesn't start eating
better and gaining weight, he may have to go back on a feeding tube, which
Taylor does not like. Hopefully he will continue to eat and gain weight. If you
haven't done so yet, make sure you sign Taylor's guestbook, and if you would
like to send Taylor a card or personal note, his mailing address is listed on
the front of the page. Don't forget the Rick and Bubba Blood Army Blood drive
this Friday, and Taylor's blood drive Feb. 22-23 (Map).
Amsouth Bank is also holding a blood drive on Feb. 26 in Taylor's honor, so
thanks to Amsouth for doing this, and all the wonderful emails we received
yesterday. We found 5 more direct donor matches, which we will greatly need in
March during his transplant.

February 5, 2003

Taylor had a great day
yesterday, mommy on the other hand is exhausted. Taylor made teh biggest mess
ever and not just the living room. We have a line of jeeps in the bathroom all
the roofs to the jeeps are in the other bathroom. We bought new storage bins for
the playroom and guess what? He dumps everything out of them and sits in them.
Oh well, I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. I am so thankful that he
feels well enough to destroy my house. We are starting to make some plans for
our trip. We can't wait. Please remember Alexis, Austin, Morgan and the Bullions
in your prayers.

About Blood Donations: If you want to be a direct donor for Taylor,
you must be O Positive and CMV negative. He can take either RH factor (positive
or negative) so that will not matter. He can not take O negative blood even
though it is the universal blood type. Giving him a different type of blood will
change his blood type, which the doctors do not want to do. If you have given
blood before and know you are O positive, but unsure of your CMV type, you can
call the Red Cross at 918-1000 and they can tell you your CMV type. If you do
match Taylor and want to be a direct donor for blood or platelets, please
email us and
we will include you on our direct donor list, and inform the Red Cross that you
will be a direct donor. Then when the need arises, we can contact you to go in
and donate for Taylor. To find out more about platelet donations, you can go to
this website:
http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/blood/learn/apheresis.html.

Taylor is rebounding from his
low platelet count. Last night, Taylor and I went to get mommy some dinner while
she took a nap. He enjoyed the time out, even if it’s sitting in the car. He
likes looking at the bright lights at night, and really loves all the bumps in
the road. Every time we hit a bump, he would speak up in the back with “bump,
bump, bump.” Once again, let me stress the need for people to donate blood. You
have a great opportunity this Friday to do so. The Rick and Bubba Radio Show
will be hosting a
Rick and Bubba Army Blood Drive Friday, February 7, 2003. Click the link for
a time and location near you, and go out and give the gift of life! We will also
be holding a blood drive, and here is some more information on it:Eastern Valley
Baptist Church and Xi Beta Xi have received a confirmation for the blood drive
that will be held in Taylor's honor. The dates will be Saturday February 22 from
1:00 PM till 6:00 PM & February 23 from 1:00 PM till 4:00 PM. The address for
Eastern Valley Baptist Church is 1216 Potter Avenue Bessemer, Alabama and the
phone number is 428-8211. For those that are interested in hosting a
blood drive, here is
some more information about how you can hold your own blood drive.

February 3, 2003

Taylor woke up early this
morning (if you call 8:00 early) to greet the home health nurse, that was
suppose to be coming promptly at 8AM. She did not show up, but Taylor’s
nosebleed was a lot worse, and everytime he sneezed, he would have severe
nosebleeds. Kim called our nurse, and she said to come on into clinic, where
they will check his blood counts, and he will more than likely get a blood
transfusion and a platelet transfusion to help boost his body and blood counts.
He has little bruises all over his body from where he bumps his head and arms
from time to time. Hopefully they will not have to keep him in-patient, and we
will be able to go back home today.

February 2, 2003

Taylor had another great day.
The end of the day turned out a little on the downside, but he played hard the
whole day. He did not take a nap until about 8:00 PM. He was worn out. The
effects of his low platelets really started to show later in the day. He started
getting nose bleeds around 3:00 PM, and later that night, after his G-CSF shot,
it took over 3 hours for his leg to finally clot. We called the nurse, but they
said just to hang in there until tomorrow morning, until his blood work is drawn
to see where his counts stand.

February 1, 2003

It has been a fun day. Taylor
played outside for a little while. He played on the swing (sing as he calls it)
and the slide and rode his Gator. We played in the garage while daddy worked on
the room. Taylor rode his bike and played with side walk chalk. It was nice out
and we hated to not let him go out, but we really don't need an ear infection.
He has very low platelets we can tell. He is getting the little tell-tell purple
dots. Hopefully it will just mean a clinic visit for a transfusion and nothing
more. We all rode to Lowe's. Taylor and I sat in the car while daddy went in, We
asked Taylor what he wanted for dinner and he said......cheese. (I bet you
didn't guess that) Well, we aim to please so we went to Sonic and got a grilled
cheese sandwich with a slice of cheese on the side. He was very happy with that.
We have one more week at home. I hope it goes SLOW. We are in the works of
planning our vacation. We are so ready. Please remember in your prayers: Alexis,
Austin, the Bullion family, Morgan and Chris ( some other friends with
Neuroblastoma), the crew and families of the space shuttle Columbia, and all the
other kids and families out there dealing with hard times,

Well it is the end of
January. What a month it has been . It was full of ups and downs. I can't wait
for February. It will bring us the last round of Chemo and a much needed
vacation! I had a Morningstar Coworker draw us a picture of Taylor. I picked it
up last night. It is beautiful. Thanks Lisa. Please keep Lisa and her family in
your prayers. Her husband has cancer. He is having a biopsy on some liver spots
today. Lets pray for the best. As for Taylor, he is doing good. His counts seem
to be dropping faster than in December. We hope to stay home the whole month. He
has no more eyelashes on his left eye and about 4 on the right. It took along
time for those to fall out and he didn't help by pulling them. It was almost as
sad to see those long lashes go as the hair on his head.

On a funny note... Taylor got
a baby dirt devil for his birthday and he cracks us up knowing how to use it.
yesterday topped it off. He was eating baked beans (that he begged for) in the
kitchen floor. He dropped a bean on the floor and then jumped into cleaning
mode. He ripped his bib off and took off down the hall. I didn't know what all
the commotion was about. He came back with his vacuum cleaner and tried to suck
up the bean.

January 30, 2003

Update: Taylor's ear
is fine and he will not have to stay at the hospital. His platelet count is
13,000 and WBC is 2000, so no need for blood or platelets right now, even though
he is still pretty low.

On my way to work this morning, listening to FM 102.5, I heard Keith Jordan
from the Red Cross come on about the need for blood donations again. We still
need people to go out and give blood. The website for the Alabama Red cross is
http://www.redcrossalabama.org You
can find out where the nearest blood drives are in your area. On a side note,
Taylor will have to go into clinic today because his ear looks infected, meaning
he could possibly have to stay for in-patient care. They will also look at his
blood counts, so he could need a blood or platelet transfusion as well.

January 29, 2003

Taylor had a busy day today.
We played with some new puzzles. One was a little to advanced and he got very
upset with it. He is still playing fine, but doesn't seem to feel just great. I
hope we get past the blahs without a hospital visit. He is eating a little
better. He had 4 packs of oatmeal and some corn. He still isn't drinking very
well. Maybe about 6oz all day. He got a cool present today. A fish tank and 3
fish!! He loves it. We named our fish too. Bubbles is black and orange and looks
kind of polka dotted. Dorothy is orange like Elmo's fish. Taylor calls it La La
because of the Elmo's World song. The Algae eater is named Frog because for some
reason he thinks it is a frog. New
pictures have
been posted!!!

January 28, 2003

Taylor had another great day
at home. His platelet count is a little low, but he is doing ok. We just have to
be careful when he is running around the house. I found this website (Bone
Marrow Transplants) on Bone Marrow Transplants which answers a lot of
questions. With his transplant coming up soon, we wanted to get as much
information as possible so that we will be prepared for what lies ahead. Eastern Valley Baptist Church
and Xi Beta Xi have received a confirmation for the blood drive that will be
held in Taylor's honor. The dates will be Saturday February 22 from 1:00 PM till
6:00 PM & February 23 from 1:00 PM till 4:00 PM. The address for Eastern Valley
Baptist Church is 1216 Potter Avenue Bessemer, Alabama and the phone number is
428-8211. For those that are interested in hosting a
blood drive, here is some more
information about how
you can hold your own blood drive.

January 27, 2003

Finally Chris and Temperance
had their baby boy. He weighed 9lbs 4 oz and was born today around 5:00PM. I
will get specifics later, but mommy and baby are doing fine. Taylor has been
great today. It is amazing how fast he picks up on stuff. I had to screw a
picture to the wall, and I went to get my box of screws and bolts. He went
crazy, and ran off to his room. I did not understand what was wrong, but he
returned a few seconds later with his box of play screws and bolts. He got his
hammer and saw and helped me fix a few things around the house. He is also
starting to put words together to make sentences. He is also now craving
biscuits. He has eaten 3 or 4 at a time. I guess his cheese cravings are
starting to die out, thank goodness!

January 26, 2003

We had a loud Sunday at home.
Daddy had several projects going such as our new storm doors. We had visitors in
and out and then there was Taylor! We still have toys all over. Taylor has what
looks like the beginnings of thrush which could account for his not eating. We
already have the magic mouthwash needed to treat the thrush if it is thrush.
Hopefully we can fix it before it gets too bad. We only have one more chemo. I
can't believe it. I still vividly remember that awful October day he was
diagnosed. I remember thinking we would never make it. We did though and it has
not been near as bad as we expected. We know it is because of our wonderful
support system and the wonderful people at Children's Hospital. Temperance is
finally going in tonight to have her baby. It's about time, Christian. Please
continue to pray for Taylor as we end this step and start the next step of his
protocol. Please continue to
pray for Austin and Alexis and all our other friends on 4-tower. Also, pray that
Temperance has a happy healthy baby after a safe delivery.

January 25, 2003

Taylor got to come home today
at about 11 AM. As many times before, a clean living room turns into a train
wreck really fast. It did not take him long to pull out all his toys to play
with. Sometimes, I am at a loss of words. Its so hard to see Taylor going
through this terrible battle with cancer. So many things come to mind. It's
impossible to try to figure out why, but I find myself asking that one question
over and over again. He is so innocent, and does not even know he is fighting a
battle, a battle of life. I'm so proud of the way he has fought his way through
all the hospital visits, doctors, nurses, needles, chemotherapy, he has been so
brave. I look ahead to the bone marrow transplant, and I fear for the drugs and
what they will do to his little body. Kim has been so strong through this,
taking care of Taylor, being there for him, when I can't. I have so many things
to be thankful for in my life. I put my total faith in god's hands, and know he
will help us take care of Taylor's needs, and heal his body from this cancer. We
still need people to go and give blood. Not just for Taylor, but for all people
out there that need blood. It affects so many people, children and adults. The
news ran another story last night, and it stated only 3% of all Alabamians give
blood. Such a small number. Eastern Valley Baptist Church and Xi Beta Xi have
received a confirmation for the blood drive that will be held in Taylor's honor.
The dates will be Saturday February 22 from 1:00 PM till 6:00 PM & February 23
from 1:00 PM till 4:00 PM. The address for Eastern Valley Baptist Church is 1216
Potter Avenue Bessemer, Alabama and the phone number is 428-8211. For those that
are interested in hosting a
blood drive, here is some more
information about how
you can hold your own blood drive.

January 24, 2003

Taylor will have to stay the
night, due to his chemotherapy will end around 8:00PM, which will be too late to
go home, so we will be able to go home first thing in the morning. This
chemotherapy, which is the same as round 4, doesn't make him sick at all, and he
usually handles it pretty well after its over also. We don't look to have to go
back until round 6 starts on 2-11-2003. It was great to see all the people at
the support group last night, a really great group of people.

January 23, 2003

Eastern Valley Baptist Church
and Xi Beta Xi have received a confirmation for the blood drive that will be
held in Taylor's honor. The dates will be Saturday February 22 from 1:00 PM till
6:00 PM & February 23 from 1:00 PM till 4:00 PM. The address for Eastern Valley
Baptist Church is 1216 Potter Avenue Bessemer, Alabama and the phone number is
428-8211. A detailed map and directions will be posted soon, but the church is
very easy to find. New pictures will also be posted very, very soon!!!

January 22, 2003

For those that are interested
in hosting a blood drive,
here is some more
information about how you can hold your own blood drive. Taylor is doing
well with this chemotherapy round. This round is a lot easier than the other
rounds. The chemotherapy is only for 1-2 hours a day instead of a continuous
72-hour stream of medicine. This allows him to go down to the activity room and
play most of the day, which he really enjoys to do. We also do not expect to
have to come back to the hospital with fevers. The last round of chemotherapy is
scheduled for 2-11-2003, and Taylor should be through with this round sometime
on Friday afternoon. We are trying to get some kind of “vacation” for Taylor
before he goes into transplant so that he will get a break from this whole
hospital thing. We haven’t quite decided where to take him yet. Once the
transplant begins, he will be in the stem cell transplant floor for at least a
month, maybe more. He will have to stay in an isolation room to help his body
fight off airborne diseases he might catch. He immune system will be very
vulnerable.

January 21, 2003

We just go into our room
(453) and settled in. Kim got to talk with Dr. Berkow, and he went over some of
the same things already posted on here. His bone scan done the other day showed
both his femur bones to be clean, but there is increased uptake (incident of
cancer) in his cranial bone (forehead). After his sixth round of chemotherapy,
he will get to go home, but they will have him back in to do the same tests that
were done on 10-10-2002, which will be a bone scan, CT scan, bone marrow biopsy
to see where they stand before he starts his bone marrow transplant.

January 20, 2003

Taylor had a good day today.
He helped mommy clean house and wash clothes. We had blood drawn this
morning to see if we could start round 5 of chemo
tomorrow. We found out at about 4:00 that his WBC is 3.4 and platelets are
90,000. All is clear for chemo. We also found out he has a lot of monocytes.
That means that his bone marrow is healing itself and becoming more healthy!!!
This chemo will be the same as the December round. It will last 4 days, but only
several hours a day instead of continuous. This one did not make him sick last
time and we didn't go in for neutropenia either. Please pray we do that well
again. Please continue to pray for Austin, who received his transplant 1/14. He
is doing really good. Also, Alexis, she received her bone marrow in early
January and is in PICU with breathing difficulties. Please Pray Temperance has
her baby soon, we are tired of waiting!

January 19, 2003

Happy Birthday to Taylor!!!
The big 2. Taylor is enjoying his time at home. If you want to wish him a happy
birthday, you can do so on his
guestbook. If you do want to donate specifically for Taylor, please go
donate blood first, and after 5 days, you can call the Red Cross (or wherever
you donated) and they will give you your specific blood type, RH type and CMV
type. Then, if you do match Taylor, you can contact us to be set up as a direct
donor for Taylor. His blood type is O positive, he can have either RH type, and
his CMV type is negative. You have to match on the blood and CMV type to be a
direct donor. If you do not match Taylor, we do encourage everyone to continue
giving blood, because there are other children that we know personally that also
benefit from people like you! To read the news articles Taylor has been in so
far, you can read them here.

January 18, 2003

Well, it took about 20
minutes yesterday after Taylor got home yesterday, but it is official, the
living room is destroyed with toys. I would like to thank everyone for going out
and giving blood yesterday. Kim, Taylor and Pappy got to visit the blood drive
at Children's Hospital before they left, and the wait to give blood was over 3
hours, and they finally had to start turning people away. I hope that if anyone
of you out there were turned away, you found your way to the Ridge Park Blood Donor
Centerto give blood there. It is right up the street from
Children's. If you were not able to give blood, there will be many more blood
drives in the coming days, and Xi Beta Xi and Eastern Valley Church will be
holding a blood drive for Taylor, which will be sometime around February 22. I
also found out that the Alabama Red Cross did a story on Taylor, which can be
found here.

January 17, 2003

Some really good news. The
doctors just come in and Taylor's white blood cell count jumped from 120 to 497,
so the doctors are going to let him go home. He has to have a platelet
transfusion first before he can go, and they have ordered the platelets and are
just waiting for them to come. Taylor still can't have his birthday party
because his counts are too low, but at least we will be home over the weekend!

At about 3PM yesterday, Taylor had to get another blood transfusion. We have
been talking about the blood shortage, and we saw first hand again how low it
is. They had to piece together two different bags of blood in order for Taylor
to get the amount of blood that he needed. I really hope the news segments will
motivate people to go out and give the gift of life. There is a blood drive
today at Children’s Hospital, and one more I know of tomorrow. For information
on local blood drives, you can go to the
Alabama Red Cross website for a
location and time for a blood drive near you. Xi Beta Xi will be holding a blood
drive in Taylor’s honor on February 22 & 23. I will post more information on
this drive a little closer to that date. Please, if you haven't (or you have,
and want to say hi) please
SIGN Taylors Guestbook. We would all love to hear from everyone, and Taylor
enjoys looking at his website, and reading his guestbook.

January 16, 2003

I have learned that CBS 42 will also be doing a story tonight on Taylor and
the need for people to donate blood. I do hope people will go and give blood,
you will feel great afterwards! Kim will also be at the blood drive on Southside
with Andrea Lindenburg form Fox 6 at 5pm, I believe this will be a live feed.

We received the results of the CT Scan last night. No new tumors! No signs of
new disease anywhere in his stomach, which is very good news. Taylor has also
stopped running fevers. We look for him to stay in the hospital over the
weekend, and they will start his next round of chemotherapy on Tuesday. We were
on The Good Day Alabama show
on Fox 6 this morning. I would like to thank that station for getting the word
out about the need for people to donate blood. If you can give blood, please go
to a local blood drive and donate, it truly does help people in need. For
information on local blood drives, you can go to the
Alabama Red Cross website for a
location and time for a blood drive near you. We were also on the Fox 6 and ABC
33/40 news segment last night. I hope this gets the word out to people, and we
can increase the low blood supply the State of Alabama currently is in right
now.

Everyone has asked about Taylor's blood type. You can find his blood type
posted below, under December 22. There is also an explanation of blood types and
cmv posted on December 27 & 28. I hope this information helps.

January 15, 2003

Taylor still does not feel good today. I haven't received news of his counts
yet, so I will update those as soon as they are relayed to me. As I have said
before, when the news of Taylor's cancer first came to us, I wanted to do
everything I could to help anyone out there who needed help. I took the liberty
to email some news stations this morning pointing out the need for them to
continue their news segments about the need for blood donations. The
Good Day Alabama show on Fox 6
has asked us to come on and share our story, which will be on tomorrow mornings
news segment. If you can give blood, please go to a local blood drive and
donate, it truly does help people in need. For information on local blood
drives, you can go to the Alabama Red
Cross website for a location and time for a blood drive near you.

January 14, 2003

Update 12:15PM: Taylor
finished his CT Scan. This was his third one and he did ok. They did this scan
to look for possible tumors in his pelvis, stomach and chest. Sometimes children
with neuroblastoma grow new tumors, so the doctors want to be sure there are no
problems that may arise. At 1PM Taylor will have his bone scan. The Nuclear
Medicine Nurse came by at 11AM to give him the contrast, a medicine that will
allow the bone scan machine to view all parts of his body. This scan will tell
doctors if Taylor has any cancer cells in his body, and where they are located.
We pray for good news, news that there is no cancer in his body. We are not sure
how long it will take to receive the results, but we will post them here as soon
as we here word. Please pray that Taylor's CT Scan and Bone Scan are both clear.
Taylor is still having fevers off and on, and his mouth sores have worsened. He
soaked a pillow last night in blood, because he had no platelets and mouth
sores. He is feeling a little better after the platelet transfusion he had last
night.

Taylor is still running
fevers (as of last night at 10:00). His sores were still bleeding, so Dr.
Castleberry decided to go ahead and give Taylor a transfusion of platelets. You
can tell there is a shortage of blood and platelets, because it took about 4.5
hours for them to come from the blood bank. Dr. Castleberry was trying to let
Taylor's own body start producing white blood cells, so that he would not need a
platelet transfusion, and his body would be more likely to produce more. There
is a tendency for the body to not produce platelets when patients receive a
transfusion of platelets. Plans have also changed for Taylor's CT Scan and Bone
Scan. They were both scheduled for Tuesday (January 21), but now they will try
to get both in tomorrow. We will not know until early sometime this morning if
they will be able to fit him into a time slot. We will see.

January 13, 2003

Update: Taylor has spit up
some blood, which doesn't concern the doctor at this point. He is concerned with
the fever, because getting a fever this late means he has caught something while
at the hospital. His counts finally broke 100, climbing up to 150. Hopefully
they will start to increase and the fever will go away. They have gotten some
cultures of his blood to see if anything grows in them (checking for virus or
infection).

Taylor's fever has been off and on. It peaked at 101, but early this morning,
his fever broke, which gave us a sigh of relief. This was due to the Tylenol he
finally received. He cannot get Tylenol until his fever reaches 101. Hopefully
his body will start producing white blood cells so that it will fight off this
fever, and he will get back to feeling better. All day yesterday he would play
fine, but would not eat anything, and we couldn't understand why. I guess his
fever was setting in and he just didn't feel like eating. We now hope he will at
least get to go home before Saturday, because he has a birthday party that day.
If you are interested in seeing where he stands on his protocol, you can do so
here. We will also be having
a blood drive soon, and information will be posted
here. As you have probably
seen on the news, their is a national shortage of blood, so I encourage everyone
to come out and give the gift of life.

January 12, 2003

Taylor started running a
fever at about 8:30pm, and he is not feeling very well at all. We pray that his
counts will come back up so that the fever will go away. It looks as if we may
stay longer than we anticipated in the hospital

January 11, 2003

Taylor is doing great today.
Still eating pizza. I think he likes pizza so much because of all the cheese on
it. I swear he is going to turn into a mouse, because of all the cheese he eats!
Last night, gram ordered Taylor the cheese pizza, and he ate 2 whole pieces and
the top layer off of three more pieces. Today, he got another blood transfusion
to try and boost his blood count levels. They are still terribly low. Just a
reminder, we will be having a blood drive with the red cross sometime toward the
end of this month, and we should have the exact place and time nailed down soon.
If anyone has any great ideas on a good location for the blood drive, please
feel free to email us. The red cross will also be giving away free t-shirts at
the blood drive, t-shirts that they don't normally give away for these types of
blood drives. Kim's grandmother was laid to rest today, may buddy find peace to
know she is with God now. We have moved back to 4-Tower, its great to be back
over there with all our wonderful nurses. Taylor is in room 450 if anyone would
like to stop by and say hello. To see where he is on this protocol, you can see
that here.

January 10, 2003

Taylor is now set up for
people to donate blood or platelets at LifeSouth on Oxmoor Road in Birmingham.
Anyone who wants to donate for Taylor can go there and no additional paper work
will be required. Also, toward the end of this month, Xi Beta Xi will be holding
a blood and platelet drive in conjunction with the American Red Cross. More
information about this drive will be posted on this page, and on the
How To Help Page.

Taylor is doing great in the hospital. We still haven’t been able to move
back to 4-Tower, but hopefully today, there will be some open rooms over there.
We really miss the nurses over there. The nurses that we have currently are
great, they just are not familiar with hematology/oncology children, and are not
familiar with their specific needs. We finally received some good news in the
midst of everything that has happened. As you know, Taylor’s first Stem Cell
Apheresis (harvest) contained too much cancer to be able to use. We received the
results from his second harvest that was done on December 23, and there was no
detectable cancer before they purged the stem cells. Because there was cancer
present the first time, they went ahead and put the stem cells through the
purging process for precautionary measures. Back to Taylor, its remarkable how
good he his feeling right now. His counts are well below 500, yet he has not
spiked a fever yet, and he is eating like a horse. We went to the oncology
support group last night, and took him a piece of pizza afterwards. He devoured
that piece and wanted more, so I went back to get him another piece. We are just
waiting for his counts to come back up so that he can go home. We have had such
a long time at home, its really hard to get back into the swing of things, but
we all know it will be worth it in the long run. The funny thing is someone
forgot to tell Taylor he is sick and has cancer, because if you saw him in
action (minus the bald head), you sure can’t tell it! If you would be willing to
help fill out a letter to send to the postal service for recommendation for a
childhood cancer awareness stamp, there is more information posted below, just
look under December 31

January 9, 2003

Kim's grandmother passed away
last night at 11:15. Please keep her family in your prayers, as they go through
this trying time. We had a very eventful afternoon yesterday. We had called our
nurse early yesterday morning to inform her of Taylor's ear infection. She did
not get her message until 5:00 yesterday afternoon, and because clinic was
closed, we had to go into the emergency room. Taylor's white blood cell count
dropped from 7000 on Monday, to 600 last night. They had to admit him into the
hospital for antibiotics. We are in another part of the hospital because the
entire hospital is fully booked, and we were fortunate to find a room at about
11:00 last night. We will hopefully be moved to 4-Tower sometime tomorrow, after
a room opens up. We miss our 4-Tower nurses. They all do such a wonderful job,
and really care about the work they do and the patients they treat. We have met
some amazing nurses, and I would like to thank each one of them for the care and
love they give Taylor, we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful bunch of
nurses.

January 8, 2003

Please add Kim's family to
your thoughts and prayers. Her grandmother, Frances Shamblin, is not doing well.
She may not have much longer with us. As for Taylor it has already been an
eventful morning. He ate a whole waffle with GREEN syrup. It was a huge mess,
but hey, it wasn't cheese. We are washing "Night-Night" right now and it has
broken his heart. He has screamed for it ever since we threw it in. We have to
go in every few minutes and manually push the button on the washer so that he
can see it go by. I guess the next hour or so until it is clean and dry will be
FUN! Taylor has an ear infection. We have a call in to the Dr. to see what we
need to do. Hopefully it will not mean an admit. Continue to pray for Alexis who
received her transplant Monday and for Austin who is getting radiation in
preparation for his transplant on the 14th. ...

January 7, 2003

Taylor and mommy will be
going out today to get some things for Taylor's birthday that is coming up on
the 19th. Taylor also bumped his head pretty good last night, with a knot
appearing on his head, but after a quick call to our nurse, we learned that his
platelet counts where still pretty high (56,000) and his white blood cell count
was still around 7000. Our nurse is hoping Taylor will only need a blood
transfusion, and will not have to come in for a high fever, which would cause an
inpatient stay of at least 4 days, which we would like to avoid if all possible.
We will know more about another blood transfusion after his bloodwork on
Thursday. Please, if you haven't (or you have, and want to say hi) please
SIGN Taylors Guestbook. We would all love to hear from everyone, and Taylor
enjoys looking at his website, and reading his guestbook. More later...

January 6, 2003

Taylor has had a wonderful
day. He had to get up early to have his blood drawn, but that is okay because he
will nap early and mommy is ready for a nap. He had fun with the nurse this
morning, they raced 4-wheelers!! Taylor has "doctored" mommy all morning and it
is great. Taylor likes to doctor by brushing your hair and rubbing your back. I
taught him good, huh! Still no fever we hope to get a long stay at home again...

January 5, 2003

Taylor had a very good day
today. Mom got to go out shopping, and we stayed at home watching TV. He did get
to go outside to ride his gator for a few minutes. He now understands that you
have to turn the steering wheel to control where it goes. A big day coming up
for us will be January 21. He will have another CT Scan and Bonescan to
determine if he has improved (and hopefully in remission) or if the cancer has
progressed any. We will be praying daily for positive results.

January 4, 2003

Today has been an easy day
yet a very hard day. Taylor is feeling fine and playing with all the toys that
grace our living room floor!! However, Janie Sims lost her battle with leukemia
around 4:00 this morning. It is very hard to hear that kind of news on any given
day, but it was very hard since Janie was the first child we had met during our
own battle that passed away. It has shaken us up quite a bit. She was a
beautiful little girl and she will be missed. That makes us really realize how
precious every minute with Taylor is. It was hard to remember that while he
pitched a 30 minute fit because we are out of tea! Please remember the
Sims family in your prayers and also Alexis Lindsey who just received her
transplant and Austin Baker who is feeling a little down right now and is
getting ready for his transplant next week.

January 3, 2003

I encourage everyone who can
to go to the galleria today for the Red Cross blood drive, and donate blood. I
also found this information on the Red Cross website that explains what
Apheresis (giving platelets) is, and how it does benefit a lot of different
people.

January 2, 2003

One of Taylor's friends is also in need of blood and platelets. She happens
to have the same blood type as Taylor, O positive, CMV negative. Her name is
Janie Sims. You can go to
her webpage for more information. If anyone out there can help, please do.

Taylor has had a very good day. He has not been sick at all today. He got to
paint some pictures today, which he hung on his door. The doctors came by today,
and gave us the option of going home late Friday night, or first thing Saturday.
We decided that we are going to go home Friday night, after chemotherapy
finishes up, which will be around 6 o'clock. This is one of the many advantages
of living in the Birmingham area. We also learned from the nurse today, to our
surprise, that Taylor can receive RH positive and Rh-negative blood. The CMV
still has to be negative, but because Taylor has RH positive blood, he can
receive either RH type. We were told differently by one of the other doctors.
This will help a couple of people who wanted to donate blood, but were RH
negative. Taylor also received a blood transfusion today to hopefully extend the
time it will be before we have to come back for fever and low blood counts.
Taylor also has a birthday coming up on January 19, but we haven't decided if we
are going to have a party or not. It will depend on how Taylor is feeling during
the week leading up to his birthday. Xi Beta Xi will be holding a blood drive,
but as of tonight, I do not have the specifics of the event. As soon as I find
out, I will post the information here. Also, please try to fill out a letter for
the post office, more information is down below about our efforts for a
Children's Cancer Awareness Stamp.

January 1, 2003

A new year, with so many hopes and dreams, may we have a great year! Taylor
started chemotherapy last night,
round four. He did not get sick until this morning, but overall, he has
handled it very well. He has only gotten sick 4-5 times. He has been in a very
good mood today. Pa-Pa and G-mom visited him today, and took him for numerous
spins on his bicycle. Just a few minutes ago, he was playing with purple frog
and could not understand why frog did not have "nu-nu's" like Taylor (nu-nu's
are Taylors hickman port, aka broviac tubes). Well, nurse Courtney and Kristie
had surgery on frog, and now frog has some nu-nu's also, and Taylor now has to
clean and flush the lines just like the nurses do his lines, mask, gloves and
all! It is amazing how much these young children learn. This round of
chemotherapy consists of
doxorubicin and cytoxan.
He will also receive Mesna
to help protect his bladder from the cytoxan.